My Life is Over
by Gennerator
Summary: Well, so she suddenly had Sharingan. And Sasuke was her brother. And someone was trying to kill her. And she had to go to Suna. And Gaara was her bodyguard. You couldn't have everything, right?
1. Sharingan

All Sakura ever wanted was a normal life. Okay, so not really normal, but normal for a kunoichi. She wanted to get as strong as possible and become a legendary medic-nin and marry Sasuke and have lots of babies with black hair and green eyes.

But no. God forbid anything be that easy.

It was on the twenty-eighth of June that Sakura uncovered the objects that would subsequently crush all her dreams and then fling them far, far away.

--

Sakura kneeled, panting heavily. She was bone tired and could hardly move, much less spar with her enthusiastic teammate any longer. Unfortunately, Naruto thought otherwise.

"Come on Sakura-chan! I know you've got more in you than that."

"Careful," she growled, already put on the edge by the heat. "I came out here with you as a favor, remember?"

She pulled out her canteen and drank half of it's contents. She passed it over to Naruto, who sputtered after his first sip and tried to shove it back at her.

"What is that! It's not water!"

"It is so," Sakura frowned, pushing it back towards him. "It's just vitamin water. It's good for you. Drink it."

Naruto knew when Sakura went into medic mode, it was best to just do what she told you and not think twice about it. Usually he would do whatever she asked. However, this was over the line. Vitamin water? It was disgusting! He wasn't touching that stuff, no matter how angry she got. "Uh-uh."

"It's hot. You could get dehydrated. Drink it **now**."

"No way!"

"Naruto, I'm warning you – "

"**No**!"

Sakura dove for him, hooking one leg around his own and using her hands to try and pry open his mouth. He yelped in surprise, instinctively batting at the canteen full of hellish liquid that Sakura was trying to force down his throat. One of his flailing limbs smacked into the canteen with more force than he meant – and it went shooting out of her grip and right towards her face, which was a mere few inches away.

It was the weirdest thing she'd ever experienced. She could see it flying towards her face, yes, she knew it would hurt like hell when it hit, and she knew how fast it was moving, but it was almost like it was in slow motion. She could track its movement so easily, it was startling. Everything was thrown into high definition she'd never experienced before, from the canteen hurtling towards her to Naruto's horrified expression.

Then the moment was broken because the canteen went smashing into her face and she was thrown flat on her back.

"Sakura-chan, are you all right? I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to, I swear!"

She sat up immediately, murder ringing in her ears.

"Did you have to hit it so hard, Naruto!"

Naruto opened his mouth either to defend himself or to apologize again, but stopped.

She scowled. "What?"

"Uh, Sakura-chan..."

"What?" She repeated.

"I think there's something wrong with your eyes..." He seemed genuinely worried. Alarms went of in her head.

"Did my eye get poked out?" Was the first thing that came out of her mouth. Then she mentally slapped herself for being stupid. She would **feel** it if her eye got poked out. "What's the problem?"

"They're kinda red," he came closer and peered at her face.

"What do you mean red?" She hadn't tried to sound that panicky. "Is there blood in them?"

"No, I mean, they're just, like, red," he sat back on his haunches, looking dumbfounded. "They almost look like sharingan."

--

She peered into the mirror for what felt like the fiftieth time, so close her nose almost touched the glass.

Nope. No red eyes, no sharingan. Just normal, pretty green eyes staring back at her.

Just Naruto playing another one of his stupid pranks.

She scowled at her reflection, silently promising to get him back later. There was nothing to worry about, except her revenge.

Only thing was, it happened **again. **

This time she was out with TenTen, eating harmless ice cream cones in the sun under a wide umbrella. TenTen accidentally dropped her vanilla ice cream.

Instantly Sakura's eyes honed in on its falling progress, and everything was thrown into complete clarity. Her hand shot out and caught it before it touched the ground. She handed it back to TenTen, who got one look at her face and let out a rather un-TenTen-like squeal.

"Your eyes!"

_Here we go again..._

"What's the matter?"

TenTen dug around in her purse and pulled out a pocket mirror. Sakura looked at her reflection and gasped.

Oh dear Lord, they **were** sharingan!

"I've got to go," abruptly she stood, ignoring TenTen's calls of, "Are you all right?"

She. Had. Sharingan.

It was lucky that over the years Sakura had learned to be calm and practical in a crisis – and yes, this was a crisis. She didn't waste any time on panicking.

There was only one person she could ask about this. Well actually, there were two, but hell would freeze over the day she asked Sasuke why she had his bloodline trait. She didn't know where her sensei's house was, but she did know where his "rival" lived.

Gulping with dread about what she was about to do, she paused before knocking, suddenly realizing something.

She was about to walk up to Gai's house with her magically obtained sharingan activated.

But...she didn't really have any other choice, did she? Steeling herself, she rapped three times on his front door.

He answered almost immediately, a grin breaking across his face as he set eyes on his prized pupil's object of affection, whom, in his opinion, was just bursting with youth. Sakura watched him carefully. There were no startled gasps, no horrified words. They must have already faded, like last time.

"Do you know where Kakashi-sensei is?" She asked, before he could get a word out. She really didn't want to get stuck here listening to the man rave about fashion and youth. "It's an emergency."

"An emergency? I think my all time rival is training, but how would I know?" He grinned at her and gave her a thumbs up.

She didn't return the gesture.

"Thanks," _for nothing. _"I have to go now."

She left again, still debating over whether he was serious or not when he said Kakashi was training. Well, it wasn't like she had any other leads.

He actually was, thankfully, training, just like Gai said. Sakura found him doing one fingered push ups near the three poles he had first given Team 7 their bell test. She marched right up to him, and without any greeting at all, said, "I have sharingan and I want to know why."

He stopped, squinting up at her. "Sorry?"

"I have sharingan, and I want you to tell me why, now."

He stared. "I don't see any sharingan."

"That's because they went away," she said, frustrated. "I don't know how to activate them, and they just go away on their own."

Kakashi stood and held his hands up in a placating gesture. "Calm down, Sakura."

"I – " she took a deep breath, realizing she had been yelling. "I'm serious, Kakashi-sensei. I don't know how it keeps happening, and I'm scared." Her voice trailed off.

He placed a comforting hand on her shoulder. "Relax. Look, try to activate it. Just close your eyes and concentrate really hard, okay?"

She nodded, and he stepped back. She closed her eyes and did as he instructed, even though she felt stupid. When she opened them again Kakashi flung a kunai at her.

She shrieked and snatched it out of the air, then stared at her sensei, her protector, shocked.

"Why did you do that!" She all but screamed. "You could have stabbed my eye out!"

He took a step closer, looking abnormally curious. "If I had thought you would be in any danger I wouldn't have done it." He stopped when their faces were only an inch apart.

"Well, holy crap," he said, stepping back and letting out a low whistle. "You really do have sharingan."

"Could you at least act like this is at least a little out of the ordinary?" She asked, incredulous at his reaction and still feeling a little strange at how drastically her eyesight had suddenly improved. "Aren't you surprised?"

He looked at her blankly. "Of course I am. What makes you think I'm not?"

"Never mind," she muttered. "So? How'd they get here?"

"No idea," he shrugged.

"B-but, you're not an Uchiha, right?"

"Correct."

"So how'd you get yours?"

"That's personal," he said easily. "But I can assure you, mine didn't appear out of thin air. Hey, yours are gone."

"So...so you don't know?" She asked, crestfallen. Kakashi was pretty much her idol. She thought he could fix **anything**.

"I'm sorry, I don't have a clue. But I'll ask around, all right? And if nothing turns up we'll take it to the Hokage."

"Okay..."

"Uh, you want me to walk you home, or something?" He offered, not knowing what else to do. He didn't like to see his usually perky student so forlorn.

"No thanks, that's all right," she managed to smile at him. "Thanks for the help, Kakashi-sensei."

"I'll tell you the second I find something."

"All right. Bye."

She left, no closer to an explanation that she had started with.

* * *

Edit:

Ah. Aaaaaahhhh. Hm.

THIS STORY IS SO OLD.

Started back when I first entered the fandom and didn't have any kind of a clear grasp on it. And was twelve. Yes, it's bad. Yes, it's cliched. Yes, it contains some vague Sakura-sue, Sasuke dislike, and a little overall retarded characters syndrome. Yes, I kind of (but not really) hate it.

BUT EVERYONE ELSE LIKES IT.

DDDDD:

So if you're fine with all that, keep reading. If not, well, eh. Too bad. It's up because so many other people enjoy it...not because I'm proud of it.


	2. Siblings

_Okay...sharingan, sharingan, sharingan, sharingan, shar – hey, there they are._

They were, she supposed, amazing in a way. Besides the fact that they had appeared out of nowhere, anyways. It was amazing to watch her wide green eyes be replaced by these...these blood red things, one lone comma shaped speck in each. She peered at her reflection in the mirror, carefully channeling chakra into her eyes to hold them as long as possible. She expertly cut off the chakra flow and watched as the red receded, her normal green color bleeding through. She activated the sharingan again, tiny pinpricks of red appearing in the center of her eyes and swelling until they dominated everything.

Amazing indeed.

If only she knew what to do about them.

She sighed and tried to remember everything she had ever heard about the Uchiha bloodline trait.

_The user is not born with the sharingan, but it generally surfaces during a life-threatening situation._

Life threatening situation? Since when is a canteen life-threatening?

_Its weakness is that it uses vast amounts of chakra. The user must have an ample amount of chakra and stamina to successfully use it in battle._

So that was a major downside on her part...

_It is able to copy various ninjutsu, taijutsu, and genjutsu, and is also able to perform hypnosis, to some degree. It also enables members of the Uchiha bloodline to see through any illusionary technique, and..._

_...wait a second._

Bloodline.

Uchiha.

Bloodline.

Blood...

"MOM!"

--

"I'm not kidding," Naruto insisted. "She had sharingan, I swear."

"Hnn."

"Sasuke, I'm **completely serious**."

"Right."

Naruto growled. "You suck, you know that?"

Sasuke didn't even bother to answer this time.

--

"Who was my father?"

Toyoe Haruno glanced up from the pot on the stove to her daughter, who was standing in the kitchen doorway.

"Sweetie, are you all right?"

"Who was my father?" She repeated.

Toyoe frowned.

"I've already told you countless times, Sakura."

"Was he an Uchiha?"

She blinked slowly. "Why do you ask that?"

"Was he?"

Toyoe glanced at the pot and turned the burner off. Not even an emotionally unbalanced Sakura could make her ruin dinner. She led Sakura into the living room and made her sit on the couch.

"So, what is it you want to talk about?"

"Haven't I said it enough?" What was her mother playing at? She was usually so quick to talk about her father.

"Well, as I've told you before, your father was a jounin by the name of Jensei Mao, and he – "

"I want the truth this time."

"I am telling the truth," her frown deepened.

"I have sharingan," Sakura blurted. She didn't have time to beat around the bush. "How else am I supposed to explain this?"

She looked at Sakura with renewed interest. "You do?"

"Yes!" She activated them without hesitation to prove it.

Toyoe sighed. "Damn. I didn't mean for you to find out like this."

"So I do have Uchiha blood. You **were** lying to me," Sakura was trying to work out how she felt about that. She wasn't sure is she was angry or scared. Maybe both.

"I was hoping that the sharingan just wouldn't make an appearance in you."

"So...so you weren't planning to tell me?" Sakura asked disbelievingly. "Ever?"

"Not unless I had to."

"I – " she shut her mouth, deciding that it could wait for another time. "Who was my father?" She repeated for a third time.

--

"Come on, you won't regret it."

"Naruto stop pulling me!"

"You want me to push you instead?"

Sasuke glared at the blonde dangerously, but Naruto ignored him.

"She could need our help, Sasuke."

The Uchiha faltered for a moment, then scowled.

"This is just you playing some stupid prank. You expect me to believe you?"

"Will you believe Sakura?"

He narrowed his eyes, already knowing how close his two teammates were. "No." For all he knew, she could be in on it, too.

"Will you at least come with me?"

"Hnn."

Naruto took that for a yes.

--

After practically kicking her front door off it's hinges, Sakura found herself face to face with Naruto and Sasuke, who had obviously been on their way to see her. Or rather, Naruto had been on his way to see her and he had dragged Sasuke along.

"Oh good," she said, latching onto Sasuke's wrist. "I've been looking for you. Come on, we've got to go."

He jerked his hand away. "I'm tired of being pulled around!"

"Sasuke, this is **important**," she'd stopped adding the honorific to his name after he'd returned to the village.

"Don't you have sharingan, Sakura-chan?" Naruto interjected. "Sasuke-teme won't believe me."

"Yes," she said exasperatedly. "Now let's **go**."

"You do not," Sasuke said flatly, not budging. She turned on him, sharingan already flashing.

"I do so!"

Sasuke stared from her new eyes to Naruto. "I'm not falling for it. What are they, contacts?"

"GOD DAMMIT SASUKE! THIS IS NOT THE TIME!" She bellowed. The black comas in her eyes whirred around her pupil angrily, before she cut off the chakra flow to her eyes and they returned to their regular color. Sasuke gaped. She had never yelled at him before. Ever. "How could I fake this? Huh? You tell me!"

He crossed his arms, obviously trying not to look too perturbed. "Okay, so humor me. How did you get sharingan?"

She faltered. This was her mother's private business, after all. But, on the other hand, what other choice did she have but to tell them?

"You can't tell anyone," she said in a low voice.

"Yeah, teme," Naruto said, frowning at Sasuke. "If you blow this and embarrass Sakura-chan, I'll kick your ass."

"I was talking about **you**, Naruto."

"Oh...well, go on, I guess."

"Apparently my mother had an affair with an Uchiha, and I'm the result. All that stuff about my father being some war hero who died on a mission? Lies. That guy never existed. My mom's been single her entire life."

Sasuke looked like he's been slapped. "Oh..."

"You believe me?" She asked, impatience tinging her voice.

He shrugged. "I suppose."

"Good. Come with me."

"Where are we going?"

"Hospital. I want a DNA test to see if Mom was telling the truth." This time Sasuke willingly followed her.

"Who'd she have an affair with?" Naruto asked, not affected at all.

"Some guy named Uchiha Fugaku."

Sasuke stopped dead.

"Who?"

She repeated herself, blinking. "Why?"

"That was my father."

For a second it seemed like time stopped. No one breathed. Naruto fidgeted with the zipper of his jacket, quiet for once.

"I – what?" Sakura managed to squeak.

Sasuke grabbed her wrist. "Come on," he sounded strained. "Now we've **got** to get a DNA test."

--

It really wasn't that bad. At first Sakura had expected something like a doctor drilling holes into the back of their heads and taking brain tissue samples – but all he did was swab Q-tips in their mouths and leave them alone for a bit. They were doing a "half-sibling test." It could tell them if they shared them same father, even if they didn't have the same mother. Sakura had no idea it could be so specific.

Unfortunately, she had to be left alone with Sasuke while the doctor studied the results, which was more than awkward. Naruto was in the waiting room.

Sasuke turned towards her, frowning.

"My father never cheated on my mother."

"Nn," she replied, not knowing what else to say.

"He wouldn't do something like that."

"Okay."

"You are **not** my sister."

"I'm sure."

He faced forward again and didn't say anything else. Sakura nervously twiddled her thumbs, dreading the test results.

This could ruin everything. Sasuke falling in love with her was her main goal in life. It had been bad enough when she found out that she might be related to him – but to be his **sister**? That was just too much.

Besides, what were the chances of her being an Uchiha, anyways? She didn't resemble one at all. For God's sake, she had pink hair! Uchiha women were cool, collected, beauties with dark, graceful eyes and long silky black hair. She, Sakura, had big green eyes and chin length pink hair, and one hell of a temper to match. Oh, and to top it all off, she had an extremely prominent tan that had come from training out in the sun. She had **never** seen an Uchiha with a tan. Granted, she had only seen two Uchiha in her life, but still...

Of course...she had gotten her eyes from her mother, and her hair had come from her grandfather. It was possible she just hadn't gotten any genes from her father's side.

Except, of course, for her freaking sharingan, which had just turned her life upside down.

God, how lucky was she?

"All, right, the test results came out perfectly clear," a man's pleasant voice carried across the room, and she jumped. She hadn't noticed anyone had entered. Sasuke stiffened.

"Since neither of you came with a parent," he frowned disapprovingly. "I'll stick to the basic fact. Yes, you two do share the same biological father. You're half siblings."

_Oh, my God. I'm Sasuke's sister._

_Shit..._

Sakura's dreams came crashing down.

--


	3. Consideration

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or any of it's characters

--

Sakura stumbled through her door, physically and emotionally drained. Her chakra was low from activating her sharingan so many times, and her normally sharp mind seemed to have stopped.

She dropped onto her bed, eyes dull and glazed. Toyoe called to her from downstairs, but Sakura ignored her. Usually she admired her mother. She admired her ANBU status, how confident she was, the way she was beautiful, with her big green eyes and long dark brown hair streaked with blue, but you knew she could kick your ass by her muscles and her uniform. Usually her mother was her idol.

But not today.

Today she wanted to grab her by the shoulders and shake her, shake her until Toyoe saw her mistake, saw how it was all her fault her daughter's entire life was over. Sakura wanted to scream at her, ask her what was wrong with her, how could she do this? How could she have an affair with a married man, and then not tell her own daughter about it until it became absolutely necessary? How could she make up those lies about her so called "father?" _Why in the hell had she, Sakura, believed her? _She, Sakura, who was supposed to be so smart.

But, being Sakura, she didn't. Being Sakura, she lay on her bed and didn't say anything.

Sasuke had seemed equally unhappy. He had touched her hand before they parted, opened his mouth, stopped, shook his head and left. He obviously wasn't pleased. Not that it mattered. Not that it mattered if he liked her **now**.

_I am in love with my brother._

Sakura buried her face into her pillow and cried.

--—--

Sasuke stood under Sakura's window, listening to the small sniffles that occasionally escaped her.

This...really sucked. He shoved his hands into his pockets and scowled. Not only had his father cheated on his mother, but Sakura was his half-sister. His chance was ruined. Completely ruined.

Why did the sharingan gene have to appear in Sakura? If only that stupid woman had just kept her mouth shut. Then neither of them would know the difference, and –

_Did I really just consider incest?_

And dammit, now she was crying. He couldn't go up and hug her or whisper to her or anything, because he was her **brother**.

And the way he wanted to comfort her was entirely **wrong**, given the situation.

He walked away, shoulders slumped.

--

This was bad. This was real bad.

Naruto trudged to his small apartment, playing over the day's events in his mind. Sasuke and Sakura were half-siblings. The look on Sakura's face had been crushing. Sasuke was pretty down, too. And, and...

And it was the best thing that had ever happened in his life.

He felt disgusting, thinking that way, but it was true. Now it was impossible for Sakura to love Sasuke. This was his chance. Now he had no competition whatsoever.

But...Sakura was so sad...

He shook his head, more confused now than ever.

--

No, she wouldn't cry anymore. That was what the old Sakura would do. She was older and stronger now. She sat up, hiccuping softly, and rubbed at her eyes.

_Well...you've always wanted a special skill, haven't you? Sometimes super strength just isn't enough._

That was true. But she had no idea how to use them, and she doubted she could anyways, what with her limited chakra and stamina. She would have to fit a lot more training into her schedule; maybe Kakashi would be willing to pay a little extra attention to her?

_This isn't a bad thing! Now there's more chance of the Uchiha clan being revived. And, catering more to your wants, maybe the sharingan are just what you need. Maybe you'll become a famous kunoichi and go down in the bingo books and people will call you Sakura the Almighty._

_...so maybe not that last one._

But, first things first. She could work on all that later.

She quietly crept down the stairs, already knowing where Toyoe would be.

"Mama?" She said, entering the den. Toyoe looked up from her book and patted the spot on the couch beside her.

"Come here, Sakura."

Just like that, her mother was forgiven. Sakura curled into a ball beside her and rested her head on her breast. Toyoe played absentmindedly with a strand of her daughter's pink hair.

"Did you know that Sasuke is my half brother?" Sakura asked quietly.

"Yes. If your relationship with him had gotten too out of hand then I would have put a stop to it." In other words, 'I would have done something if your love wasn't one-sided.'

"Oh..."

"You okay?"

Sakura nodded, closing her eyes. "Uh-huh."

_Stop lying..._

"Um, did that guy, my dad, did he know I existed?"

Toyoe's hand stilled in Sakura's hair. "Yes. He did."

"Really?" Sakura turned around so she could see her mother. "Did he visit me when I was little? Did he pay child support and buy us gifts and wish he could be a normal father but he couldn't because he was married? Did – "

"No, Sakura," Toyoe interrupted softly. "He didn't do any of that. The only thing he did was drop me as soon as he found out I was pregnant and refuse to acknowledge that you were his daughter after you were born."

"Oh," Sakura said again, trying not to make her disappointment too obvious. Then, after some silence, she spoke again. "Why did you have an affair?" It took all her self control not to add, _I mean, you're the coolest person I know. You're beautiful and smart and funny, so why him? You could have any guy you wanted._

"I'm not really sure." Her hand started twirling her daughter's hair again. "Fugaku wasn't kind or funny or...anything that usually attracts me." She stopped and shook her head. "I don't know. But he was so quiet and mysterious, it sort of...drew me to him."

_Okay...this is starting to sound sort of familiar._

"I don't think he loved me, even at the beginning," Toyoe continued. "I was just his newest thrill. I told myself so many times to break it off. I knew it was wrong. I felt so guilty whenever I saw his wife. But...I couldn't. He was like a drug, and I was addicted." She stopped and glanced at Sakura, surprised. "I cannot believe I am talking to my fifteen year old daughter about my love life."

Sakura shrugged, like it was no big deal, even though her mind was in turmoil. _Yes, let's add some more lies to our list._

"Sakura-chan, don't think to much on it," Toyoe sighed, pulling her daughter closer. "It was my decision, not yours. And, frankly, since you're the result, I don't regret it. Don't worry about things you can't change."

Sakura looked up at her mother, and felt her admiration returning. Toyoe was so strong, so incredibly strong. And she always knew the right thing to say. She was a wonderful mother. Sakura found herself thinking again what she had believed her entire life.

_I don't need a father. Mom is more than enough._

_..._

_Even if she did have an affair with Sasuke's father._

--

At the same time Sakura was working things out with her mother, Sasuke was wishing he** had** a mother. Then he got around to imagining his mother was still alive, and was hugging him and protecting him from the world, just like she used to.

_How pathetic are you? _He sneered to himself. _Stop this pansy shit. She's dead. And before she died, her husband was busy screwing another woman._ _WHO HAPPENS TO BE SAKURA'S MOTHER._

Strangely enough, the thought of his father comforting him never crossed his mind. Fugaku hadn't really been the nurturing type. And at the moment, Sasuke wasn't thinking too highly of him.

_Sister. She's my sister. I can not believe this._

Which, for some reason, brought to mind an image of Naruto shoving a thumbs up in Sasuke's face and shouting "BELIEVE IT!" at the top of his lungs.

_You get out of my head, asshole._

Angrily he kicked a rock. It went flying and rebounded off the brick side of a house. Sasuke mentally sighed. What was he doing here, in this trashy part of town? He needed to go back to his apartment and mull everything over.

_...but you're already having so much fun kicking rocks._

He turned around to head back to his apartment.

But didn't make it.

--

Sakura and Naruto were frantic.

If it wasn't one thing, it was another. Why did this all have to happen to them?

They couldn't find Sasuke.

The words echoed hollowly around her mind. _Can't find him...missing..._

_Again._

He hadn't shown up for Team 7's weekly training session. He wasn't at his apartment. He wasn't with Kakashi.

He was missing.

--

That bastard. That BASTARD.

How could he do this to them?

Naruto gritted his teeth and choked down an animalistic snarl. He chanced a glance at Sakura. Her lips were pale and her body stiff as she sprinted through Konoha's streets with him, crazy fear alight in her wide eyes.

He was pissed. Pissed and scared and disoriented. His thoughts had become a mix of jumbled words, none of which made sense.

_Bastard...red...Sakura-chan...Sasuke...sad...pink...black...missing...dead? Sasuke nooo._

They ran faster, pushing their limits as far as they could go.

--

The two split up, Naruto taking Konoha's North side, Sakura covering the South. They should have notified Kakashi, but they didn't. This was between the three of them. It was a small village. _It shouldn't be taking this long to find him._

Her heart was thumping almost painfully against her chest. She could hear the blood rushing through her ears. Her throat was dry.

This couldn't happen...

She searched for an hour, stomach twisting painfully. Every minute she felt more and more sick.

Something was wrong. Something was so, so wrong.

And she didn't even know any more if it had something to do with the possibility of him leaving.

_I feel like I'm gonna barf..._

She crouched, eyes scanning as far as she could see from her position on a grimy rooftop. Surely he wouldn't be **here, **in this beat up part of the village...would he?

She lighted in the middle of a street, where she could see her surroundings better. This place was...deserted. Barely anyone lived here. It was creepy.

She shook her head and set off again, not going quite as fast as before. She had a job to do. Her stomach was getting worse.

_Please don't let me keel over and die in this dinky little place._

"Sasuke," she called out hoarsely. "Sasuke!" She repeated, louder. _Are you here? _

"Kn..."

"Sasuke?" She stopped and listened hard.

_Breathing._ Soft, labored breathing. Right ahead.

She had to force herself not to take off again, to slow down and follow the only lead she had. She peeked into an alley, where she was sure the sound was coming from.

And froze.

_Blood_, was the first word her mind registered. Blood everywhere. Pooled on the ground, streaked on the walls. On the lump hunched over on the ground...the lump with spiky black hair. The barely breathing lump.

_Oh, no._

Sakura opened her mouth and screamed.

And screamed and screamed and screamed.

--


	4. Ambush

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any of its characters.

--

Sometimes Gaara wondered why he had become the Kazekage at all. Really, once you got around the thrill of protecting the village from looming doom, it was all just paperwork. Paperwork and Kankuro wasting ample amounts of his time trying to hook him up with random females.

Not that he had anything to do with his extra time, anyways. But still.

So when a messenger brought him a scroll from Konoha's Hokage, requesting his presence, he practically jumped at the opportunity.

--

Sakura turned away from the bloody mess that was her teammate. The stench of blood was suffocating, it was everywhere. She leaned a hand on a wall for support and succumbed to the nausea that had threatened her ever since she started searching. She couldn't stop dry heaving after there was nothing left to throw up. A strangled moan escaped her, and she stopped for a moment, surprised. Did that sound really come from her?

_Sasuke, you idiot! __**Sasuke!**_

She knelt next to him and checked his pulse with a shaking hand. The back of her throat burned with horrible familiarity when she found it. She wasn't sure what made her want to cry, that there was still a pulse, or that it was barely there.

Forcing the tears back, she rolled him over as gently as she could and straightened him out. So many wounds...he had lost so much blood. She shook her head a little. He was most prominently bleeding from his stomach. She peeled his shirt off as gently as she could. The blood had slightly congealed over where it looked like he'd been impaled. Sakura closed her eyes and breathed in deeply. She had to calm down. She couldn't afford to screw this up.

_God, it's a wonder he's alive._

She placed her hands over his stomach, trying to ignore the way he flinched away. After a brief moment of concentration she poured her chakra into him, flawlessly stitching together the damaged flesh.

_Cells...tissue...muscle..._

She pulled away. A fresh layer of newly grown skin replaced what had been a gaping hole minutes ago, still slightly pink. She turned to the rest of the wounds, all of which were less serious. As she worked she talked.

"It's okay, Sasuke-kun. I'll heal you up and take you to the hospital. You'll be fine. Naruto's coming too, no doubt he heard me screaming my head off. And when you get out of the hospital, we can all go out for ramen. Kakashi-sensei too. Then again, ramen's not that healthy, is it? Maybe we should take you out to...a veggie grill, or something."

It was amazing how the boy could turn her into a blubbering mess, even in unconsciousness.

With a sigh she picked him up, carefully channeling chakra to give her the needed strength.

--

"Yeah...I'll be staying here the night. Me? I'm fine. I swear. Uh-huh. I'll be home tomorrow, okay? I love you. Bye."

Sakura hung up the hospital phone and walked back to Sasuke's room, stumbling every once in a while. She felt dizzy and a little disoriented from her sudden loss of blood. Blood that was now in Sasuke, thanks to her donation.

Naruto was lying on the empty cot in Sasuke's room, eyes closed and breathing deeply. They hadn't been able to contact Kakashi yet. Sakura glanced at Sasuke. He was pale, even more so than usual, but other than that he looked like he was going to be all right. Her eyes rested on the IV drip attached to his arm.

"Move your ass over," she mumbled, poking Naruto in the side. He obeyed, and she crawled onto the cot next to him. "He's fine, Naruto," she added softly. "Go to sleep." He smiled weakly , eyes remaining closed, and drifted off after about ten minutes. She followed soon after.

--

A pair of onyx eyes snapped open. Sasuke gasped slightly as he awoke, blurred images of the night before clouding his mind.

_**GET UP!**_

But he wasn't there. His attacker was no longer there. And Sasuke wasn't bleeding, like he'd remembered. How –

He turned and his eyes rested on his two sleeping teammates, a mass of tangled limbs and mingled snores.

Ah.

Naruto was drooling on Sakura's arm. She was going to be pissed when she woke up.

From his surroundings and the smell, he was in the hospital. Judging by the bright sunshine that came in through the small hospital window, it was morning. He closed his eyes again, trying to recollect what had happened. He was ambushed by...who? Why couldn't he picture his face?

_He was wearing a mask_, Sasuke recalled. _I never saw his face. _

Sakura mumbled something in her sleep. Naruto, after emitting an earth shaking snore, rolled right off the edge of the mattress, pulling Sakura half of the way with him. He was left on the floor, blinking at the ceiling, with Sakura's torso hanging off the edge of the cot.

"Why're you s' loud, Naruto?" She slurred sleepily, sitting up and rubbing at her eyes. Then she noticed Sasuke. "Oh!" And then, "Eww, Naruto, you drooled on me!"

"Wazzat?" He mumbled, crawling under the cot. He curled up on the floor, intent on going back to sleep.

"Dobe, get up," Sasuke said in monotone. Naruto's head snapped up and slammed against the bottom of the cot. Sakura could actually feel it through the mattress.

"Owww...oh shit, ow."

Sakura reached under the mattress with a sigh and pulled Naruto out by the collar of his shirt.

"Moron," she told him endearingly, already healing the impressive swelling on his head. Sasuke watched, blandly wondering what Naruto would do if Sakura hadn't become a medic. Probably die.

"So who did it?" The blonde asked expectantly as soon as Sakura released him.

"I don't know," Sasuke replied, facing the ceiling and using his hands as a pillow. "He cheated," he added, scowling.

Naruto snickered and Sasuke glared, daring him to say something. Sakura coughed awkwardly. "So, uh, how'd he cheat?"

"Popped out of nowhere and used a chakra sucking jutsu on me before I could even turn around," Sasuke looked greatly displeased. "Kept going 'Die Uchiha, die!' like a goddamn maniac."

"What did he look like?"

"He was wearing a mask. He was bald," he stated, knowing before the words left his lips how useless they were.

"Well, that's better than nothing. I think we should notify Tsunade-sama."

"As we speak," Naruto grinned, and summoned a small frog. Sakura jerked away, completely revolted. The summon was sent quickly on it's way to feed this tidbit of information to the Hokage.

"So," Naruto continued, sucking on his bleeding thumb. "What happened after that?"

"I got the shit beat out of me."

"Well we figured as much," Naruto said, rolling his eyes. "You were pretty bad off when Sakura-chan found you."

Sasuke cast a questioning look at Sakura, who flushed.

"I just healed you a little and took you to the hospital. It wasn't a big deal, really." _Oh yeah, no big deal. I just found you in a gory heap and screamed bloody murder. Then I barfed up everything I'd eaten in the past week. Spent the entire experience terrified that you would die. Yup, no big deal._

Naruto snorted, as if reading her thoughts. "You had a huge gaping hole in your gut."

"Thanks," Sasuke said to her awkwardly.

Naruto flared up. "Hello, she saved your life! _Thanks_?"

"Thank you profoundly," Sasuke smirked. "**Nee-san**."

Naruto laughed, but Sakura just stared at him, appalled. How could he joke about that? She stood up angrily and left the room without saying anything.

--

Honestly. Who did Sasuke think he was? That had been entirely uncalled for.

_Doesn't he care at all?_

Sakura sighed and walked slowly around the hospital, passively observing the quiet forest that bordered on side of the medical center. She would return in a few minutes. Or an hour. She just needed to calm down. For a second she had come dangerously close to smashing Sasuke's face in. And that would have been...bad.

_I suppose he __**wouldn't**__ care, would he? _She mused to herself. _He never really paid attention to me before..._

**Snap.**

She forced down a scream and reacted immediately.She threw herself flat to the ground, shuddering at the breeze the weapon passing over her generated. She crouched and leapt away, studying her attacker.

He was drenched in blood, dark blood that stood out starkly on his sky blue shirt. It was old and dried, but it was blood. Sakura was around it enough to recognize the stuff. She couldn't see his face. It was covered by a white mask with red markings, similar to the ones the hunter-nins wore. He didn't have any hair.

_That's...Sasuke's blood all over him_, She realized. _This is the guy who tried to kill Sasuke._

Before she had any more time to contemplate her next action, a hand fisted in the back of her shirt and she was jerked off her feet, into the forest. An arm gripped her under her breasts, and the next thing she knew, her mouth was being covered to prevent her from screaming and her captor was leaping into the air. He lighted on a tree branch, much higher than she would have liked to be.

Without hesitation she brought her elbow slamming backwards. Her captor caught it. She pulled it out of his grasp, already getting ready to repeat the action, only this time with the needed strength to snap his wrist if he tried catching it again.

"Sakura, be completely quiet. It's me." She was released and she turned, bewildered, to the man beside her.

"Kakashi-sensei? What are you doing here?"

He pointed to her attacker, still in the same position she had left him, gripping a heavy sword.

"I've been tracking this guy all day." He glanced at her sideways. "You all right?"

"I'm fine. Thanks." She squinted. "Why's he just standing there? I mean, shouldn't he at least be wondering where I went?"

"He's fucking crazy," Kakashi told her calmly. "He's covered in blood and he's been talking to himself all day. He keeps telling himself to kill the Uchihas. I'm guessing Sasuke's family did him some great personal wrong. He also nearly decapitated you for no reason."

"Uh..." _He might not be as insane as you think_. She would have to explain to him later. "He's good, though," was what she settled for. "At elite level or above. He – he almost killed Sasuke."

He looked at her sharply. "When?"

"Sometime around last night...I think."

"Is he all right?"

"Yeah. He needed a blood donation, but otherwise he's fine."

His attention turned back towards the masked man. "I was wondering why you were wandering around the hospital. If he bested Sasuke then I'm going to have to take this a lot more seriously."

"Sasuke said he's got a chakra depletion jutsu," Sakura said. Kakashi nodded to indicate he'd heard.

"Look, he's leaving," Kakashi said quietly, eyes trained on his target. He turned towards her. "I'm assuming Naruto's in the hospital with Sasuke?" She nodded. "Good. Go in the hospital and stay there. You and Naruto watch out for Sasuke. Send word to Tsunade. I'll follow him on my own."

"Will you be all right?" She asked, alarmed.

"I have been so far," he shrugged. "Go. I'll watch."

She obeyed, jumping from her perch and landing crouched on the ground. Without looking back she sprinted to the hospital doors. She stopped, halfway through stepping inside, and turned to look at where Kakashi stood. He gave her a lazy wave and disappeared.

--

"Are you all right?"

Naruto reached out to examine her, but Sakura slapped his hands away, already knowing his intentions were less than innocent. He hung around Jiraiya too much.

"I'm fine, Naruto."

Sasuke was sitting up, a look of deep contemplation set onto his handsome features. He closed his eyes and sighed, almost angrily.

"So far he's only targeted us. So we have to ask ourselves what Sakura and I have in common."

Sakura looked at him, an almost painful expression on her face. "It's not like we have to guess."

--

Kakashi returned to the hospital the next morning, completely exhausted. He waved off the two nurses crowding around him and headed straight for Sasuke's room.

Naruto was sprawled across an empty hospital cot, snoring. Sasuke and Sakura were both sitting on the second cot in the small room, talking quietly. Both looked serious.

"Yo." He stepped over the threshold as two of his students' heads turned. Sakura breathed a sigh of relief.

"Hello, Kakashi-sensei. I was getting worried. Did you get him?"

"Nope," Kakashi said blandly, stuffing his hands into his pockets. "Lost him."

Sasuke's lips thinned. "You–lost–him?"

"Yup."

Sakura groaned and flopped backwards on the cot. "Perfect. Just perfect."

"Isn't it though?"

Kakashi knew he should be taking a direct threat to his students more seriously. But he suspected that if he did so, it would only scare them more. It was either get them mad or get them scared. Lose-lose.

"I cannot believe you are joking about this. Do you have any idea how serious this is? We could die. I swear to God, you are the worst sensei in the world. And that's not even including your pornos and always being late."

See?

He was saved being berated by a teenage girl any longer by the arrival of the teenage girl's mother. Toyoe walked in without greeting. Her sharp eyes darted over the room, taking in everything. Completely ignoring the three males, she walked over to Sakura and enveloped her in an embrace.

"Are you all right?" She whispered softly. "I was just told you were attacked. They wouldn't tell me anything else. I-I thought maybe you were hurt...or, or..."

"I'm okay, Mom. Kakashi-sensei saved me," Sakura said. Toyoe straightened and turned towards him, eyes briefly flickering to the Icha Icha Paradise novel peeking out of a pocket on his vest.

"Thank you," she told him stiffly. "For protecting Sakura. It's greatly appreciated."

Kakashi shrugged. "It was no trouble. She is my student, after all."

Toyoe had never really liked him. Kakashi knew that his taste in reading contributed to it, but he also felt that she resented him for failing to ever try to bring out potential her daughter. He had mainly focused on Sasuke, and occasionally Naruto. But, now that he thought about it, he had blatantly ignored Sakura's talents.

Well, there was really no need for her negative outlook at him. He already resented himself for practically abandoning two thirds of his team.

He, however, thought Toyoe was a pretty cool woman.

Not that he would ever tell her that.

"Ah, I forgot," Kakashi snapped his fingers, wanting to end the awkward silence. "The Hokage wants Sasuke, Sakura, and me in her office. Haruno-san, you'd better come too."

"But Sasuke – "

He had already yanked out his IV drip.

"I could have done that a lot more gently," Sakura said meekly.

"Hn."

--

"Sure. I'll do it," Kakashi shrugged.

"You do understand what's expected of you," Tsunade pressed.

"I do."

"You're sure."

"Uh-huh."

"All right then," Tsunade handed him a scroll. "You leave tomorrow morning."

"Cool." Kakashi left to inform Sasuke.

--

"No," Toyoe said flatly.

Tsunade arched an eyebrow. "Excuse me?"

"I am not leaving my child in the hands of a fifteen year old boy."

"And who, pray tell, do you think is a better pick?"

She lifted her chin. "Let me do it. She's **my** daughter."

"While I don't doubt your capabilities, Haruno-san, you're only an ANBU. He is the Kazekage of his village."

"While I don't doubt your intelligence, Hokage-**sama**, have you forgotten than he tried to kill her?" Toyoe returned.

"Was that disrespect I just heard?"

"Yes. It was."

Tsunade glowered at the woman before her and reached under her desk for her bottle of sake. Shizune promptly yanked it out of her hands. Tsunade sighed deeply at the prospect of handling this without the aid of alcohol.

"Suna is indebted to Konoha. The Kazekage easily agreed when I asked this of him. It would be considered extremely disrespectful to send him back."

"You are gambling the life of Sakura to strengthen bonds between our country?" Toyoe asked disbelievingly.

"I am not gambling her," Tsunade growled. "Contrary to what you think, Sakura is my apprentice and she is important to me. Gaara is the most capable shinobi I know. If he wasn't then I wouldn't think twice about letting you do it."

"He's a teenager."

"And?"

Toyoe glared, whirled around, and left. She spotted her daughter in the waiting room and grabbed her wrist.

"Come on, Sakura."

--

"Sakura, come down here. You've got some...company."

Sakura looked up from painting her nails her traditional sea-green color. Carefully she capped the small bottle and stuck her head out her bedroom door.

"What?" She called.

"Come downstairs."

She obeyed, pausing briefly at the bottom of the steps.

"Where are you?" She yelled.

"In the kitchen," Toyoe yelled back.

Sakura plodded into said area in her pajamas and pink slippers.

And froze again.

There were other people besides her mother there in her kitchen.

Toyoe was leaning against the counter, arms crossed and a muscle in her cheek twitching. Shizune was there too, looking awkward and unsure of what she was supposed to be doing. Kakashi and Sasuke stood in a corner. Kakashi smiled and waved; Sasuke just blinked to acknowledge her presence.

Before she even had time to think, _What in God's name are you people doing in my kitchen? _a fourth visitor appeared, upside down and clinging to the ceiling, inches away from her face. She shrieked and fell backwards.

"What the fu– " she broke off, glancing to her mother. "Freak," she finished lamely. "Um, Gaara, what are you doing here?"

_Shouldn't you be in Suna? WHY AREN'T YOU IN SUNA?_

He thrust a scroll at her, not saying anything. She gingerly stood up and took it, still staring at the boy on her ceiling.

"Read it," he said, as if she didn't know what she was supposed to do with it.

She spared him an annoyed glance and opened it, eyes darting quickly over its contents. Her mouth dried out.

Oh, no.

--


	5. Favor

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any of its characters.

--

_Mission Rank: B–A_

_Assigned: Gaara, Fifth Kazekage of Suna_

_Description: Escort target Haruno Sakura to Suna. Remain in Suna and act as bodyguard until further notice. _

_Cautions: Unknown shinobi may or may not attack. Possesses chakra-depletion jutsu. Especially skilled in taijutsu. Capture alive if possible._

--

It was for her own good. Her own life. She should be grateful to Gaara.

But god dammit, she didn't want to!

Who wants to leave their village because a maniac is after their life? **Who**? Not her.

And why did she even need a bodyguard? She was perfectly capable of handling herself!

She chanced a look at her stoic companion, and was startled to find that he was glaring right back at her.

_...he's still creepy...figures..._

"Um..." She trailed off. Never in her life had she felt this awkward. "Could we maybe stop and rest soon?" Jumping from tree branch to tree branch was getting rather old.

"No," he answered without looking at her.

"...why not?"

He slowly turned to look at her.

"You need to ask?"

Oh yes...someone was out to kill her. She felt herself blushing against her will. It seemed the boy had obtained the magical ability to make her feel incredibly stupid without even trying.

Great. Just great.

"So, Gaara-san..." Somehow it felt strange calling him 'Kazekage'. "How've you been?"

His pale green eyes flicked to her for a second before he replied. "Fine."

She sighed glumly and went back to taking in the scenery as they traveled. Said scenery consisted of trees. Lots and lots of trees.

"Are you tired?" Gaara asked eventually.

"Huh? Oh, no," she replied. _Just starving as hell._

Unfortunately her stomach decided to voice what she would not. Gaara glanced at her, and something that might have been a grin crossed his face. Then it was gone. She could feel herself blushing again.

"We can rest for a few minutes," he told her.

They stopped in a small clearing and ate some of the meager rations they had brought. Neither of them complained; it took the edge off their hunger and they had more serious issues to worry about. After resting for another five minutes, they set off again.

Traveling with Gaara was dull, boring, uneventful work, and by nightfall Sakura had calculated that by the end of this trip, she would have gone partially insane.

Sakura unrolled her sleeping bag and dug through her backpack for dinner while her companion made a small, hopefully unnoticeable campfire. She extracted two granola bars and tossed one to Gaara. She leaned against the thick trunk of a tree and savored each bite of her dinner, knowing that it was the only food they were going to get until noon the next day. They hadn't brought much.

Gaara stood and walked towards the edge of the clearing. Sakura paused in mid-bite.

"Where are you going?"

"To get dinner."

She just shrugged and went back to concentrating on the chocolate chip peanut buttery goodness of her granola bar. If he wanted to stumble through the forest at night searching for roots and berries and whatnot, then so be it.

She didn't expect him to return with a fat adult hare, limp and still in his hands. Its neck flopped around when he walked. He had snapped its neck. He stooped and pulled a kunai from his pack, and slit it open from its neck to its stomach. Sakura gaped, then had the sense to turn away, the freshly eaten contents of her stomach churning violently.

When she turned back it he had already finished cleaning it and had impaled it with a sharp stick. He placed it by the campfire.

"I am not eating that," she said, trying to keep her revulsion to a minimum.

Gaara turned to her. "It's protein."

"It's **cute**."

Gaara raised the skin where his eyebrows would be and cast a meaningful glance at the carcass roasting over their small fire. "Cute. Right."

"Well it **was** cute," she said weakly, and turned her back on him. Honestly, murdering innocent little rabbits? That was entirely unnecessary.

But when the aroma of slowly cooking meat filled the air, she practically got high off the fumes. Gaara removed the hare from the fire and neatly sliced it in perfect halves with his kunai. And when he held out the half with the stick through it, she lost all her resolve.

She did glare at him while he handed it to her though. That had to count for something.

Fifteen minutes later, however, feeling full and put in a considerably better mood now that her stomach had stopped constricting painfully, she was willing to forgive him.

"Thanks, Gaara-san."

He nodded at her once and took in her content, sleepy appearance. "I'll take the first watch. You sleep."

Sakura happily agreed and crawled into her sleeping bag without a second thought.

--

When she next woke it was to Gaara leaning over her and lightly shaking her shoulder.

"'M up," she mumbled, rubbing at her eyes. Without any further greeting, Gaara sat, hunched, against a tree, and closed his eyes.

Sakura stretched, groaning a little as her back popped in five different places. With a small yawn, she surveyed her surroundings. Eventually she decided on a branch about fifteen feet up a tree, and she settled down to keep watch.

She really hated keeping watch. You had to keep alert and awake the entire time, and usually, nothing happened. But she knew that if she fell asleep or daydreamed, they would be attacked. That was just her luck.

She guarded camp until sunrise, then leapt down from her perch and stood before Gaara, suddenly realizing something.

He was asleep.

_Well, what else would he be doing?_

Right...Shukaku had been removed, so why wouldn't he?

Still...she hadn't really managed to grasp the fact that he had been _asleep_ while she kept watch. It was a strange sight.

He didn't look like most people she had seen while they slept. Granted, the only people she had ever seen sleep were impassive Kakashi, likewise Sasuke, and...Naruto, who was Naruto.

He didn't look like any of them while he slept.

He didn't look hateful or peaceful or even...er..._happy_, while he slept, like her teammates occasionally did. His brow was furrowed and his lips curved downwards in a frown. Every once in a while a finger would twitch.

...how did he manage to scowl in his **sleep**?

She lightly poked his shoulder and sucked in her breath, half expecting him to lash out at her. He jerked awake (She took an automatic step backwards.) and blinked a couple of times before standing.

"Good morning, Gaara-san."

He nodded politely but otherwise ignored her presence. "Let's keep moving."

--

Sometime between afternoon and night the terrain drastically altered from forest to desert. This was not a welcome change for Sakura because, not only was the temperature much less to her favor, they now had to walk, and their progress was considerably slowed.

She had never more greatly appreciated how tiring it was to walk in unsupportive, shifting, constant, **sand**.

Gaara, however, seemed to be much more at ease now that he was surrounded on all sides by his weapon of choice. He visibly relaxed and progressed to answering her attempts at conversation with three or four words, instead of, "Hn."

She wiped the sweat from her upper lip with the back of her hand and plopped onto the sandy ground. She really hated this. It was so _hot_.

"How do you do it?" She asked him, absentmindedly fanning herself with her skirt flap.

"What?" He asked dully, making it far too obvious that he wasn't interested in what she had to say.

"How can you not die of heat stroke?"

"I'm used to it."

She looked down at herself, dressed in her sleeveless shirt, cycling shorts, and short white skirt, then at him, dressed in his long sleeved black robe.

And then wearing long black pants underneath, no less.

He didn't seem to be affected by the heat at all. She, on the other hand, felt like she was dying. She pressed her index finger to her wrist and pushed a small bit of chakra into her bloodstream. Ah. That felt a little better.

When she looked up Gaara was watching her again.

"Cooling Jutsu," she said, waggling her middle and index finger in the air. "Want some?"

He shook his head. "They didn't tell me you were a medic."

"Well, I am," she said, not sure how else to reply.

"I'll take first watch," he said, cutting off their short conversation.

--

Sakura stared up at the tall stone walls bordering Gaara's village, the very first flutterings of apprehension stirring in her stomach. The guard patted them both down then waved them through, and they entered the village hidden in the sand.

Gaara turned to her, looking neither relieved nor pleased to return home.

"Welcome," he said. "To Suna."

--


	6. New Schedule

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any of its characters.

--

Temari eyed the little pink haired chuunin, her scowl becoming more and more prominent with each word her youngest brother spoke.

"The Hokage requested that I bring her back to Suna and let her stay here for the time being." Gaara's voice had gone into hard flat monotone, as it always did when he spoke of his duties. She bit the inside of her cheek and tried not to sneer. Her? Pinky? Here, in Suna? God, what had the world come to? Her foot tapped the floor impatiently. "Someone is after her life, and I'm to protect her during her stay."

Temari raised a quizzical eyebrow at him. Protect...it just didn't sound right. Gaara and protection didn't go together, unless it was for the sake of the village. Not for some...some weak little girl.

"She should be with you, me, or Kankuro at all times. No exceptions," Gaara paused and looked to his sister pointedly.

She didn't like where this was going.

"You are **not **dumping that girl on me," she stated flatly. From her position leaning against the wall of Gaara's office, arms crossed, she could half-way see the pink girl standing uncertainly. She glared at her. The girl noticed. She frowned back at Temari, an almost indistinct line appearing on her overlarge forehead.

Gaara continued as if he hadn't heard. "Haruno will stay with you at your apartment."

"No." She said it coldly, with just a tiny hint of anger. A few months ago she wouldn't have dared to disobey her brother – and neither would Kankuro. But Gaara had changed, and she figured that now was a good a time as ever to show some older sibling dominance.

Especially since she was roughly fifteen years late.

"Do you think it would be better if she stayed with Kankuro?" It came off as more of a statement than a question.

Temari bit her lip, hard. He had a good point. A female in Kankuro's house at night would be a no no.

But why her?

"Why can't she stay with you?" She questioned irritably, not liking the fact that she was already losing this argument.

Gaara glared at her for even suggesting it.

Oh yes, how could she forget. Gaara was the big bad Kazekage, so God forbid anything or anyone happen that might disrupt him and all his important duties.

She **so** wanted to say that.

"I hate you," she ground out instead, baring her teeth.

Gaara ignored her.

"If you're so against it then you can drop her off with Kankuro during the day. When I finish with work then I'll watch her for the evening, then she can go back to you."

"That means you barely have to watch her at all," Temari said unhappily.

"And?"

Temari made an indistinguishable sound that might have been "tk," and glanced towards the cause of all this. Haruno's face looked calm, but her twitching fingers gave away her agitation at being talked about as though she was a burden.

Well, she was. No sense in lying to her.

"When do I start?" She asked Gaara resignedly.

Gaara slipped behind his large desk. "You can take her now."

"**Now**?" Temari repeated incredulously. "I have to take her home **now**?"

She could almost feel the other kunoichi's anger. Temari sneered at her, a symbol that she didn't give a shit if she was unhappy. Haruno clenched her fists so hard a couple of bones popped and sent her a glare worthy of that Uchiha kid...which was probably where she learned it.

If Gaara noticed the two female's hostility, he didn't acknowledge it.

"Yes, now."

--

Sakura caught the pillow and blanket the older girl threw at her.

"You can sleep on the couch," Temari snapped. "I don't have a guest room."

She nodded tensely in response, trying to fix the way her control on her angrily swirling chakra was slipping. If she wasn't careful she could break something on accident.

...or someone.

On accident, of course.

She could not believe this. They had worked out a schedule for her. A **schedule**.

Sakura glared at Temari's back as she left the room.

_I am a guest...must...not...snap...table..._

_But it's sooo snap-able... _

She threw her bedding onto Temari's couch, scowling. Perfect. She had to stay with this...this evil amazon woman.

She even would have preferred staying with stoic **Gaara**.

The light outside was dying quickly. With a last sigh, Sakura crawled onto the couch and settled into what she knew would be an uncomfortable sleep.

--

Sakura sighed wearily and crossed her arms, while Temari busied herself with violently banging on her brother's front door. She hoped that Kankuro was friendlier than his sister. If he wasn't, then...she'd think about that if the situation arose.

The door swung open and Temari had to jump backwards out of its way. "What the hell do you want?" Kankuro roared at his older sister.

"Good morning," Temari replied sweetly. "Just thought I'd say hi."

Kankuro was not pleased. "Woman, you had better have a better reason than that for almost beating down my door."

Sakura couldn't help it. She giggled. Kankuro's gaze swung to her, and his displeasure seemed to melt away.

"Hey Temari, who's your friend?" He asked, grinning at Sakura.

"You should know," Temari said. "You just saw her a few months ago."

"What? Uh..hey, I know!" He exclaimed. "You're my cute little nurse! Sakura."

"Nice to see you again, Kankuro-san," Sakura smiled at him. He seemed to be a little more sociable than Temari.

"Likewise," he said, looking her up and down. Sakura's smile slipped a little. She wasn't sure if she should feel flattered or outraged.

"Are you going to let us in or not?" Temari interrupted.

Kankuro sighed and stepped back. "So pushy..."

"So, here's the current situation," Temari said briskly once they were seated in his small den. "A wack job's after pinky here, so she needs to be with you, me, or Gaara at all times so she won't get her insides ripped out or something."

"Sounds good to me," Kankuro said, not fazed at all.

Temari noticed. "The only reason Gaara agreed was because the Hokage specifically asked him. This will do wonders for reinforcing the alliance between Suna and Konoha. So that means no mess ups. If she dies, we're screwed."

"Right, right," Kankuro said. "No worries, big sister."

Sakura couldn't believe they were talking about her like this. 'If she dies, we're screwed?' Why were they all treating this like a business deal? This was her LIFE they were talking about!

"You'll have to excuse my sister," Kankuro said, noticing her expression. "She's an evil manly wench, and tends to act as such."

Temari bristled as Sakura laughed. "And this is coming from my homosexual brother who wears makeup and plays with dolls?"

"They are not dolls! And it's war paint!"

Temari laughed meanly. "I'm sure. And if I'm so manly, how come it's **me** who has a boyfriend?"

"I don't **want** a boyfriend," Kankuro sniffed haughtily.

"You know what I meant," Temari grinned.

Sakura watched the exchange with interest, strongly reminded of her two teammates. Kankuro suddenly grabbed Sakura by the elbow, waving her arm at Temari. "I already **have **a girlfriend," he said smugly.

"Uh..." Sakura considered protesting, but a quick wink from Kankuro assured her that he was just having fun. "Oh yes," she said, deciding to play along. "Kankuro and I have grown very close in the five minutes we've known each other."

"Very cute," Temari said, unimpressed. Kankuro 'hmphed' and released Sakura's arm.

"You know Temari, this is why your boyfriend won't move over here," Kankuro said. "He's probably afraid of you. You're too mean. Relax."

"I – " she was broken off by a loud growl from Kankuro's stomach. He laughed embarrassingly.

"Uh, wanna go to lunch?"

"No thanks," Temari said, with a withering glance at Sakura. "You two go on."

They parted at the front door, Temari heading back to her house and Sakura and Kankuro making their way towards Suna's marketplace.

"Is she always so hostile?" She asked Kankuro once they were out of earshot.

"Of course," he replied. "She'll loosen up after a while, don't worry."

Sakura doubted it.

--

Sakura wasn't disappointed. Kankuro was more fun than his sister. He was friendly and had a good, is not twisted, sense of humor. It was easy to talk to him, and his constant flirting strangely made him feel much more familiar than they normally would have been. They spent the day wandering around Suna, and when Kankuro led her to Gaara's office to pass her off, she felt disappointed.

"I really would like to stay with you longer," he said while they waited outside the door. "But, what the Kazekage says goes."

"We'll see each other again tomorrow," she said.

"You may see the Kazekage now," the secretary spoke up.

They moved through the door and found Gaara staring at a neat pile of scrolls stacked about a foot high.

"Hey Gaara," Kankuro greeted. "Paperwork get away from you?"

Gaara grunted in response and pointed to a cushioned chair by the door. "Haruno, wait for a few minutes. I need to finish these."

"Bye Gaara, bye Sakura-chan," Kankuro waved.

"Bye Kankuro-kun," she said, taking her seat. Kankuro left.

Things were going to get irritating.

She dropped her chin into her hands and let out a small sigh. After spending who knows how long in a cramped office with Gaara, the boy who tried to kill her when they were twelve, she would go back to stay with Temari for another night.

And Sasuke and Kakashi weren't here. Her love...her **brother **and her sensei had yet to arrive. What if they had run into the Uchiha hater and he turned out to be more than Kakashi could handle?

What if – Sakura closed her eyes – they had run into Orochimaru?

Sakura mentally scolded herself for considering Sasuke would betray them.

But...he had done it before, right? What was stopping him now? Sure, he was back in Konoha, but she and Naruto had to drag him back kicking and screaming. And he'd only agreed to remain after two weeks under heavily guarded arrest...what if he wanted to go back?

What if he didn't? What if Orochimaru took him by force?

A slight groan escaped her as she cradled her head in her hands, rubbing her aching temples. She thought too much.

"You're worried."

She lifted her face, blinking, to look at Gaara, who hadn't taken his eyes off his greatly diminished paperwork.

"How...?"

"You're too open with your emotions," he paused, eyes flicking to her. "It's obvious."

"Okay, yes, I am," she admitted, frowning.

"Worried about the Uchiha?"

"Yeah," she was startled into saying. "I mean, he should have been here by now, right? He and Kakashi-sensei left at the same time as me. So why aren't they here? Were they deterred? If so, why didn't they send a message? How come – " she bit her tongue, hard, before she could blubber any more. How could she babble like that in front of the **Kazekage**? He probably thought she was an **idiot** now. Any second now he was going to smirk and make some snarky comment, and she'd feel even dumber.

"They took a different route than you and I," he instead replied. "Longer. They could be stopping in different locations to lose a trail."

"Oh." Well that made sense. She still felt stupid, though.

Yes, things were going to get very, very irritating.

--


	7. Female Hostility

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any of its characters.

--

_Status report: Day six._

_Temari: Still a bitch; getting better. Sort of. Doesn't scare me for fun anymore, most of the time._

_Kankuro: Entertaining and nice, if not overly flirty. Fun to be around. He's kinda like Naruto, only more mature._

_Gaara: Quiet...but okay, I guess. At least he's stopped murdering people on impulse. And...eh, he's nice. Er. Well, not nice. But not disrespectful either. He's just sort of...neutral. _

_Naruto: Hasn't written __**one**__ letter. Not one. He promised me he'd write every day. Liar. I'll get him when I get back._

_Shikamaru: No letters at all. You know, we've been friends for seven whole months, so you would think that the guy would take the time to say hello._

_My goddamned sibling: Still not here. I hope you're having fun, Sasuke, cause I'm gonna be POed when you finally show up._

_My goddamned sensei: The same goes for you._

_Mom: Hasn't written. Probably off on some awesome mission with her ANBU pals while I'm stuck here in the desert._

_Tsunade-sama: ...hasn't written. But I suppose she's busy. She is the Hokage, after all._

_Lee-san:...also has not written..._

_Ino and TenTen: Haven't written either! What's with these people? Have they all forgotten me? I'm serious. I haven't gotten any letters at all. Jerks. All of them. They – _

"What are you writing about?"

Sakura peered at Kankuro over the top of the notebook she'd brought along with her from Konoha. Usually it was reserved for notes on complicated healing jutsus, but today she just felt like pointlessly writing something. Sitting on his couch with her legs tucked up to her chest with a pencil in one hand and a choclatey brownie in the other, she was feeling rather content, despite her agitation with her lack of news from her friends.

"People," she said, then took a bite out of her snack. "These brownies are kickass."

"You made them," Kankuro reminded, trying to look over her shoulder. "Who are you writing about?"

"No one."

"Am I in there?"

"Maybe," she said evasively, hunching over her writings protectively.

"I **am** in there. What did you say about me?" He asked, then waggled his eyebrows suggestively. "Nothing inappropriate, I hope?"

"You wish," she raised a brow at him and held her notebook closer to her face to hide her smile. "I just wrote that you're fun."

"...just fun?"

"...were you hoping for something else?"

"No..." He sighed, and sent her a wounded glance. "But you could have at least mentioned the burning passion that you secretly hold for me, the way your pulse quickens whenever you think of me, how sexy – hey, what're you writing now?"

"That you're annoying," she scowled at him, then smirked. "And that you look good without makeup."

"Hey, I do?" He asked, eyes lighting up. Then he slowly frowned. "It's not makeup."

"According to you it is," she said, pleased with herself for tricking him, even if it had been juvenile and pointless.

He opened his mouth, probably to further defend the stuff he smeared all over his face, but was interrupted by a small tapping noise from the doorway that led into the kitchen.

"Gaara," Kankuro blinked in surprise. "I have a door."

"You didn't answer," he said flatly.

"Oh. Right. So what are you doing here?"

"I'm here to pick her up," he nodded to Sakura, who mentally sighed. Drat. And she'd been having fun, too.

"You came to me?" Kankuro asked blankly. "That was...nice of you."

For some reason Sakura found this funny, and had to fight not to laugh. Gaara noticed her twitching lips, however, and sent her a piercing glare that clearly said, _I __**dare**__ you_.

She bit her lip, all traces of humor gone.

She dared not.

"Come on," Gaara motioned for her to follow him.

"Bye, Kankuro-kun." she sighed, and followed Gaara out the door. He turned to her on Kankuro's front porch.

"Are you hungry?"

"Eh?" Was all she managed.

"Come on," he said again, starting to walk.

She hurried after him. "I just ate."

"I'm hungry," he said bluntly. "And you should eat too. In the desert, if there's an opportunity for food, you take it. You can't know when a famine will come."

"You...have famines?"

"Don't you?"

"Uh-uh," she shook her head. "Everyone pretty much gets fed in Konoha."

"How nice." Was that contempt she heard? "But here it's different. You should eat when you get the chance."

"Do you think I'm weak?" She questioned him, frowning. "Just because my village is..." She trailed off. What? Her village was what? Wealthier? Well-fed? Stronger?

"I didn't say that," Gaara said, staring straight ahead.

"You implied it," she pressed.

"I'm not going to waste my time arguing with you."

Sakura huffed, but held her tongue. He was talking to her like she was a child!

"What do you want to eat?"

"What?" She asked, still working through her mental ranting.

"Haruno, I'm also not going to spend my evening repeating myself."

"I don't really care what we– oh hey, anko dumplings."

"I thought you didn't care what we ate."

"Well, that was before I knew Suna had a dumpling stall," she said matter of factly, pulling out her wallet.

Gaara's hand suddenly covered hers and he pushed her hand back down. Something stirred in her stomach, and her eyes widened a fraction. He lifted it away, and she felt an un-explanatory disappointment.

_What...was that?_

"Don't. I'll get it," he said, and she snapped out of her daze long enough to put her wallet away and follow him to the dumpling stand.

He paid and then handed her two long sticks with three balls of heaven on earth impaled on each.

"Thank you, Gaara-san."

He nodded and turned back to the man behind the stall. A moment later he turned around, holding a paper plate with a few chunks of unknown meat on it.

"What's that?" She pointed to his meal, trying not to wrinkle her nose.

"Tongue and gizzard," he answered, now walking again.

"Ew," she said automatically, falling into step beside him. Then his words processed. "**Eww**."

He glanced at her quizzically, as if unsure of her reaction.

"It's just...most people don't like that, where I come from," she tried to explain.

"It's good," he said, and she blinked, now unsure of **his **reaction. The old Gaara wouldn't have wasted sentences on defending his preferred food.

But, she decided, smiling, this wasn't the old Gaara.

--

Gaara nearly recoiled from the kunoichi next to him.

She was smiling, at him, and that in itself was a mystery.

This, of course, wasn't even taking into account everything **else** about her that left him completely baffled.

Why was she so calm? Why didn't she act nervous, or even** awkward **around him? He chanced a look at her. She had taken her eyes off him, and had gone back to eating her meal. Like she wasn't walking right next to an ex-murderer. Like he couldn't tear her throat out right this minute.

He tensed automatically, waiting for the voice that would urge him to do just that, before he remembered that he didn't have a voice anymore.

Ironic. He finally got used to Shukaku, then he was pulled out of his body.

They stopped at a small bench to eat, each one silent and perhaps even uncomfortably aware of the other's presence.

"Did you know that you eat strangely?"

He turned towards his companion, the corners of his mouth tipping downwards. "Strange how?"

"Well," she started, and he could see that she was carefully selecting her words. "You're just so...detached." She smiled at him again. "It's kind of funny."

So she also found him funny. Wonderful. He would have to add this to his list of things he couldn't understand about her.

"I'm not funny," he said eventually, and went back to his food.

"Are too," she retorted immediately, and he stopped his plastic fork's ascent into his mouth. She was watching him, eyebrows raised, as if challenging him to react to her childish prodding.

He snorted disdainfully and turned away. Like he would even consider it. He was Gaara of the Sand, Sabaku no Gaara, and he would not lower himself to such trivial argument. If she wanted to play silly games with herself then so be it, but he was a Kazekage, and he, unlike her, had his dignity to keep.

"Am not," he shot back, unaware that he had just rebelled against the logical portion of his mind for the first time in his life.

Sakura, however, grinned. "I knew it," she said happily. "I knew you still had some kid left in you."

"I do not," he scowled.

"You just contradicted yourself."

"I did – " Gaara snapped his mouth shut before he could embarrass himself even further.

Sakura laughed delightedly. "You know what?"

"What?" He humored her.

"I thought you were creepy at first, but I have decided that I like you."

"Whoo," he said, dully sarcastic.

"Methinks that Gaara, **the** Gaara, just made a joke," she peered at him, as if she couldn't believe it.

"...Haruno?"

"Yes?"

"Shut up."

She, for once, obeyed him, shrugging and moving on to her second stick of anko dumplings.

He frowned again. Was this the same girl whom he had seen when he was twelve? Back then she would have burst into tears at the slightest hint of an insult from her dark haired teammate. Hell, was this even the same girl who he had seen mere months ago? When he had woken to find her leaning over him after Chiyo-sama's sacrifice? She had been crying then, too.

"...aren't you bothered at all?" He couldn't help but ask.

"Eh?" She blinked. "Oh, no. I'm used to it. People tell me to shut up a lot. Sasuke-kun – " but she immediately snapped her mouth shut, and didn't finish what she had begun to say about her teammate. He decided to let it drop and went back to his dinner.

"SAKURA-CHYAAAN!"

An orange and black blur barreled into her, and Gaara stiffened with surprise, having not seen the attack coming. In the time span of half a second the cork had popped off his gourd, sand had gone spiraling into the air in all different directions, and the intruder was slammed into the brick wall of a nearby store.

"Ow, oww...Gaara, what was that for?" His captive whined, struggling halfheartedly against his sand prison.

"So troublesome..." A vaguely familiar voice sighed, moving in such a relaxed way that Gaara's sand didn't even react to him as a threat. "Why are you always so enthusiastic? You knocked Sakura flat on her back."

"Naruto? Shikamaru?" Sakura pushed herself up at the same time Gaara dropped Naruto. The blonde wasted no time in greeting her for a second time. "I can't breathe, Naruto."

"Eheh, sorry Sakura-chan." He stepped back and held out a hand to help her up.

"What are you two doing here?" She questioned, delicately brushing herself off.

"Hokage-sama sent us," Shikamaru drawled, shoving his hands into his pants pockets. "Messengers," he explained further. "We've got news and letters. Which do you want first?"

"Right now? You haven't even said hello, Shik."

"Preferably. I would really like to find an inn and sleep. Hello, Sakura."

"You haven't changed," she rolled her eyes. "Letters first, please."

He complied, handing her a small stack of paper and Gaara allowed himself to marginally relax. Obviously, Naruto and Shikamaru did not pose a threat. Sakura's eyes darted quickly over the sheets of paper, smiling widely.

"I was starting to worry," she said, folding her precious letters and stuffing them into her medic pouch strapped to her hip. "But every single one of them wrote to me."

"Of course," Naruto reached out to hug her again and she allowed it, sighing but hugging him back. "Everyone misses you."

"That's nice to know," she turned towards Shikamaru. "And you have not hugged me yet."

He sighed and slung an arm around her shoulders. Gaara was sure that he heard the word, "troublesome," muttered under the other boy's breath. Sakura just rolled her eyes and hugged him around the waist.

"Good afternoon," a cool new voice joined them. Gaara turned to see his sister, eyeing Sakura and Shikamaru with a calm predator's look. "Welcome back, Shikamaru."

Shikamaru detached himself from his pink haired friend, probably already knowing what was going through Temari's head.

"Yo," he said in lazy acknowledgment, moving towards her. He leaned down, since she was a few inches shorter than him, and pecked her on the lips.

Sakura's jaw dropped.

"Whoa, Shikamaru," Naruto said, astonished. "When you said you had a long distance relationship...geeze, couldn't you have told us?"

"You never asked," he shrugged, slouching beside his girlfriend, who was now sizing up Sakura, apparently trying to figure out what to make of her.

Gaara's brow creased, and he moved a fraction of an inch closer to Sakura, who was conversing happily with Naruto. He had seen that look on Temari before, and it always resulted badly. Many a-female had suffered at Temari's hands.

She was possessive.

And seeing as she had walked in with Shikamaru touching Sakura, even if it was a light sign of friendship, it was a bad sign for the pink haired girl.

"Haruno," he said quietly, moving closer. "You should – "

"Hey," Temari interrupted, walking up to them. "Let's go train:

"Me?" Sakura blinked.

Temari gave her a sour look. "Who else?"

"...all right," if Sakura was surprised she didn't show it. Gaara's brow creased.

"Did I miss something?" Naruto asked blankly. Shikamaru sighed and steered Naruto to follow the two girls. Gaara silently trailed after them.

Temari led the four of them out to a section of the desert bordering Suna. Sakura, after glancing around at her surroundings, shrugged and then moved into a pushup position.

"No," Temari told her, sapphire eyes flashing. "I want to fight."

--

Sakura slowly stood up from the ground, already knowing what a bad match up Temari was for her. Sakura specialized in close-range combat. Temari rendered that tactic useless.

She was not stupid. Temari was jealous or feeling threatened or both, and an emotionally unbalanced Temari was a force to be reckoned with.

Sakura didn't have any good ninjutsu up her sleeve. Her inhuman strength also wasn't any help in the sandy environment, unless she wanted to directly hit and kill Temari.

And she didn't hate her **quite** that much. Yet.

But...as far as she knew, Temari didn't have much experience in hand-to-hand combat. And hadn't she been training in taijutsu with a sannin for the past three years? Not only that, but she had a good arsenal of medical jutsus, had defeated a member of the Akatsuki, and had an array of genjutsu to fall back on.

Though, seeing as she had never tried any of these genjutsu in real life and had only read about them, she would rather avoid trying them out.

She didn't stop to ask herself why she was so carefully considering everything. She knew. This woman had treated her like trash ever since she'd arrived. Sakura wanted to **win**.

_And I will._

_**Hell yeah!**_

--omgborder0-0-0-0--


	8. More Female Hostility

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or any of its characters.

--

"Okay Temari," Sakura said cooly, mentally picking at her strengths a weaknesses. "I'll spar with you."

_**Whoo! Kick her ass!**_

Temari grinned in her trademark way, teeth bared and eyes glinting dangerously. Sakura regarded her warily. She'd never liked sadistic people. They creeped her out.

_...weren't thinking of that when you fell in love with Sasuke, were you?_

Ow. Why did her mind have to be so mean?

...oh God, she was going insane.

"Little girl!" Sakura's head snapped up at Temari's voice. "I said, are you ready?"

_Little girl? _"Uh, yes."

"All right then." Temari moved until she and Sakura were parallel, with a few yard's distance spacing them. The boys settled to watch from the sidelines, Shikamaru fidgeting.

"Does this happen a lot?" Kankuro asked, keeping a wary eye on the two females.

"No," Shikamaru coughed softly. "Usually the other girl runs away after Temari threatens her."

"Not Sakura-chan though," Naruto grinned proudly.

Gaara glared at the sky. "Do you realize that Haruno is walking into suicide, Uzumaki?"

Naruto blinked. "What, you don't think she's good enough?"

Gaara's silent stare was answer enough.

Naruto bristled. "You've never even seen her fight! She's great, she can – "

Any further conversation was interrupted by an eruption of sand shooting at least twenty feet into the air. The males shut their mouths and brought their attention back to the fight.

Sakura backpedaled furiously, violently coughing. Okay, so, maybe punching the sand had been a bad idea. _You're supposed to be the smart one! Dammit, sand is different from dirt! Use your head!_

_All right, where did she go..._Sakura's eyes searched for Temari. _Right, left, behind, in front...shit_. She moved just in time; a second later Temari's fan slammed into the exact spot Sakura had been standing seconds ago.

"Are you crazy?" She yelled, landing safely a few feet away, not liking how close Temari had come to snapping her spine. "You could've killed me!"

_**Sparing match my ass!**_

Temari didn't reply, just swept her fan open in one smooth motion.

So she wasn't going to waste time by showing off. Great, just great. That could have given Sakura enough time to work out a strategy, if Temari had opened her fan one section at a time like she usually did.

So splitting the ground open was out, judging by the last time she'd tried, and hitting Temari was out...what else could she do?

Sakura resisted the urge to rip her hair out. All this time, she had only learned super strength and healing jutsus. And that was all well and good, but she had never stopped to think what would happen if her strength was rendered useless. That was her only offensive attack. She couldn't pull tendons and tamper with the enemy's blood streams like Tsunade could. She could only heal. Obviously, that wouldn't help her here.

Sakura suddenly threw herself flat to the ground to avoid the series of sharp, blade like winds that passed overhead. One just barely nicked the back of her shirt.

_That was too close...again_. She thought shakily, jumping to her feet and moving a safe distance away from her opponent. _Temari's really serious about this. All I did was hug him! What's her problem? That's so...ew. Shikamaru's like a brother, shouldn't she know that?_

She momentarily stopped thinking, lips parted and head cocked to the side.

Hello.

"Do you think I'm playing? Pay attention," Temari snapped, already arcing her fan through the air.

Sakura jumped to the side, pumping chakra to her eyes. This was risky, she knew that. Though her taijutsu and chakra reserves had improved greatly, they weren't to Uchiha standards. She could seriously damage herself if she overdid it. She didn't even know _how _to use the sharingan.

But.

She had the element of surprise on her side. She was smart. She could figure something out.

"I said pay attention!"

Sakura clenched her fists. "Will you just shut up?" She yelled back. Here she was trying to strategize, and that amazon was distracting her. _God._

Temari charged her. Sakura held her ground, mouth set in a grim line. Good. It looked like Temari's temper had reached the breaking point – just enough to make her a tiny bit reckless. Inhaling deeply, Sakura quickly cast a light genjutsu to hide her current eye color. It wouldn't hold out for long; as soon as she was distracted, it would drop. But she wouldn't need it for long.

_Come and get me. I've got it all planned out._

_**REVENGE, BITCH!**_

As soon as Temari was in range, Sakura ploughed her fist into the ground. Sand shot up around her, getting in her eyes and burning her nose. She coughed violently, once, then forced the second one back. Temari pulled back at the last second and wasn't caught in the upsurge.

Sakura smirked.

Good.

She moved her hands in a quick series of seals.

Temari squinted at Sakura's silhouette through the sand quickly being pulled downward by gravity. She was making a doppelganger? Did she think she was stupid?

Not waiting for the air to clear, Temari swept her fan in front of her in a smooth, wide arc. The sand was blown clear away, as was Sakura's clone. It disappeared in a small poof of white smoke.

Temari leaned her elbow against the top of her fan, relaxed. All she had to do now was wait...

A second clone dashed at her; Temari destroyed it with a wave of her fan.

Before the smoke from the clone had even cleared, a hand shot up from the ground and grasped Temari's ankle.

The smirk died from her face.

Sakura pushed herself out of the ground, twisting Temari's arms behind her.

"Surprised?"

Temari didn't reply, her face blank. She didn't move.

"Do you give up?"

Temari disappeared, and Sakura was left holding a small boulder. The fan dropped to the sandy ground, no longer having anyone to support it.

"Don't be so cocky," a voice hissed into Sakura's ear as a kunai was pressed to the back of her neck. "Did you really think I wouldn't consider this from Kakashi's student? Do you think I'm that stupid?"

Sakura glared at her from over her shoulder. Temari's breath caught in her throat and she cringed in surprise. "Yeah."

Sakura didn't let the brief loss of the kunai's pressure go to waste. Without missing a beat, she twisted, and kneed Temari in the stomach. Temari's eyes widened and her mouth dropped open, before her hands automatically went to clench her stomach. Sakura grabbed her right shoulder, trying to ignore the fact that she had to stand on tip toe to do so, and pushed Temari to the ground, face first. Her knee pressed into the small of her back and her hands pinned Temari's wrists together.

"Do you give up now?"

Temari didn't answer, just lay there, stunned. Did she...did this girl have...?

"Why...do you have sharingan?" She demanded, craning her neck to stare at the pink

haired girl looking down at her. No, she hadn't imagined it. Haruno's eyes had turnedblood red. They were unmistakable.

Unwillingly she remembered her fight with the Uchiha, during the Chuunin exams. That boy, he had humiliated her. She should have won. She was older and smarter than him. She had trained harder. But she didn't. Sasuke had beat her, and there had been nothing she could do about it.

"Why do you think?" Sakura answered,

And now, if her assumptions were correct, she was about to be beaten by another Uchiha.

"...get off me."

"You give up?"

"Get off me!" Temari violently wrenched her arms in an attempt to get free. Sakura had anticipated this. She held on firmly, knowing that she was the stronger of the two. What she hadn't anticipated was for Temari's legs to practically disjoint themselves by bending backwards and slamming into the back of her head. Sakura's mouth opened in a silent gasp of pain, and Temari used her momentary lapse to roughly throw her off.

Temari stood and darted to where her fan lay a few feet away, mind screaming.

Sakura shakily pushed herself to her feet, trying to summon some nonexistent chakra.

Temari watched her hatefully. How dare she, she who was younger and weaker, belittle her. She would pay, Temari was going to make her regret hitting her, she was going to _kill_ her –

She didn't even know when she had started running, fan raised above head, ready to strike. Sakura willed some energy into her legs, but they wouldn't work. She had used all her strength and chakra. She couldn't run.

In a last ditch attempt to defend herself, Sakura threw her arms over her head.

Nothing happened.

Tentatively, Sakura cracked open an eye.

A barrier of sand was in front of her, protecting her from Temari's onslaught. She lowered her arms, bewildered. Naruto was running towards her. The sand dropped, and Temari was revealed, still poised to fight. Kankuro was behind her, restraining her from beating Sakura to a bloody pulp. "Temari, calm down. What's wrong with you? It's not a death match."

"Sakura-chan, that was awesome!" Naruto bounced on the soles of his feet, grinning proudly. "You almost won!"

Sakura stared at him, then at Temari, who had stopped struggling and was watching the ground intensely, then to Gaara, who was standing a few feet away, arms crossed, like nothing had happened.

_I lost._

She drew a shaky breath, taking a few steps backward. Temari jerked herself out of her brother's grip and stalked off towards the village. Shikamaru, looking anxious, waved to them and quickly followed. Naruto was still babbling to her about how close she had come.

_...almost._

"I am not staying with her tonight," she blurted randomly, suddenly remembering her sleeping arrangement. "She'll murder me in my sleep."

"Yeah, she probably will," Kankuro agreed easily, watching his sister's retreating back. "I guess there's no choice but to stay with me. We can share the bed."

She was about to sarcastically remark something along the lines of, Such a gentleman, but Gaara beat her to the punch.

"No."

"Why not?" Kankuro pouted.

Gaara gave him a flat stare.

"All right, fine," he grumbled. "But you know, that only leaves you."

"I have a guest room."

--

Sakura sighed, staring at the guest room ceiling. This wasn't bad. She was lying flat on her back on the bed. It wasn't very comfortable, but at the moment she was just glad that she had a bed.

_I can't believe I lost._

She closed her eyes, brow creasing.

_I always either lose or tie. Why can't I ever win?_

Zaku...Ino...Temari...she had never won a match in her life. Even when she had killed Sasori, she'd needed outside help. Couldn't she do anything? What had all those years of training been for? Had they been a waste of her time? Was she doomed to be weak forever?

She brought her left hand up and held it at eye level. Nice, soft, pretty hands like Ino's had been a sacrifice she had made when she became Tsunade's apprentice. Shattering boulders with your bare hands didn't come without consequences. Her hands were scarred and calloused; a symbol of how hard she had worked.

She lowered her hand back to her side and forced her fight with Temari out of her mind. She had other things to worry about. Like Sasuke and Kakashi. And her sharingan. And Gaara, who was just down the hall.

"I have a message for you."

Sakura's eyes shot open and she sat bolt upright. Gaara was standing calmly at the end of her bed.

"I...what?" She babbled. "Um...do you knock?"

"It's my house."

"...right."

"Do you want your message or not?"

"Yes," she sighed. "Please give me my message, Gaara-san."

"Temari says that your taijutsu sucks and she can help you improve if you'd like."

She paused, halfway through running her hand through her bangs.

"She wants to fight me again?"

Gaara gave her an exasperated look. "No, she wants to train you."

"Oh...well...that's nice of her."

"She won't hurt you, if that's what you're afraid of."

"I'm not afraid of her!" Sakura defended, lifting her chin defiantly.

Gaara just snorted. "I'm sure. Goodnight, kunoichi." He moved to leave.

"Sakura."

He paused. "What?"

"You always call me kunoichi or girl or Haruno. My name is Sakura. I call you by your name, it's only fair that you return the favor."

Gaara gave her a long, level stare, then smirked. "Fine. Goodnight, Sakura."

--


	9. Late Night Musings

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any of its characters.

--

Sakura couldn't sleep.

Gaara had left her room an hour earlier, and hadn't stopped pacing since. She could hear him, continuously moving back and forth in his room, which was just a few feet away from hers.

She rolled over onto her side, trying to block thoughts of Gaara from her mind. A few minutes ago, she had finally realized something that she wasn't very happy about.

She had purposefully showed Temari her sharingan, and hadn't stopped once to think of the consequences. Temari had contacted Gaara after their fight. No doubt she had passed this tidbit of information to her brother. And right now, Gaara was probably fully aware that a member of the Uchiha clan was in his guest bedroom.

..._awk_ward.

Ah well. Sakura ran a hand through her petal pink bangs. If he had an issue with her being an Uchiha, that was his problem. Right now she had _so_ many other things to focus on.

Finally giving up on sleep, she reached over to the small night stand Gaara had provided her and extracted a stack of letters from the bottom drawer. Smiling now, she began to read them for the second time that day:

_Dear Sakura-chan,_

_There's haven't been any updates on your attacker. He seems to have vanished. Personally, I'm hoping that he hasn't followed you to Suna, but that's just me. If he has, then Gaara's protection enough. If Gaara gives you problems, then just write me and I'll come over and kick his ass for you. By the way, HOW COME YOU NEVER TOLD ME YOU WERE AN UCHIHA? I'm your sensei, you're supposed to share these things with me! Then again, you didn't know until recently, did you? I suppose I forgive you then. I've sent Toyoe on a mission. She was practically going insane. Don't be surprised if she doesn't write, I've sent her far, far away from you. Sasuke and Kakashi should be arriving soon. _

_Sincerely,_

_The Fifth._

Sakura placed this letter carefully aside and moved on to her next one.

_Hey, forehead. Whatcha doing? I mean, besides being off on some important classified mission that you forgot to tell me about. Thanks a lot. Really bored here. Nothing much to say really. Eh...here's TenTen._

_Hi Sakura-chan. I know you can't tell us your exact location, but if Naruto and Shikamaru know where you are, then why don't we? Geeze, we're supposed to be best friends. Anyways, nothing's going on here...Ino and I miss you. So does Anko...I'm not even going to ask what kind of a connection you have with her._

_I & T._

What connection did she have with Anko? Had she ever even spoken to her, aside from business? Well...she didn't want to know why Anko missed her either, then.

Her last letter was from Kakashi.

_Yo, Sakura._

_We've changed our original route. Sasuke and I have decided to lay low for a day or two in a little village just off the middle of nowhere. Don't be expecting us soon, it was just chance that Naruto and Shikamaru ran into us. _

_Missing my favorite student,_

_Your Master._

_P.S., Sasuke says hi. _

Not very interesting...but they were a start.

She placed them back in the drawer and lay down. She could still hear Gaara pacing in his room.

Thump thump thump.

Tsunade said Sasuke and Kakashi would be arriving soon...but Kakashi said they were laying low. For how long? And why? Had they run into the man who ambushed Sasuke? Her stomach tightened with fear. Were they, maybe, hurt? So badly they could no longer travel?

Thump thump thump.

She forced her tense muscles to relax. Never panic. Never jump to conclusions. She was overreacting, like always. Kakashi was probably just being lazy, and here she was working herself up over nothing. But, she mused, she always had been an anxious person. Always worrying about her boys, constantly fussing over their minor injuries. _I'm going to make a wonderful mom one day_, she thought sardonically, then frowned. Why had that sounded so bitter? She wanted to be a mother, didn't she? That had been her dream, ever since she had –

Thump thump thump.

– met Sasuke...Sasuke, who was her brother. Sasuke, whom she could no longer even consider. _Incest_, her mind hissed at her. _Incest, incest. Wrong. Sick. Genetically impossible. _

She couldn't picture Sasuke as a father. As hard as she tried, she really couldn't. Sasuke, cradling a squalling baby. Sasuke, with pink and black crowned heads crowding around his knees. No...her mind refused to consider it. To even imagine it. Sasuke...was not the fathering type, as much as she hated to admit it. For that matter, neither was she.

She blinked, mouth falling open. What was she **thinking**? She rolled over, pulling the pillow over her head in an attempt to smother her own thoughts. But it was too late. Her mind was already running on a totally new track, listing reasons why she was not destined to maternity. **Damn** her for being so analytical.

"I **am** going to make a wonderful mother," she said aloud, softly repeating her earlier thought, as if to reassure herself. "Maybe not with Sasuke, but I will be a mother. I want to get married and have kids...and..." She trailed off. "...I will." Her last words sounded so small and scared. Scared of what?

_**The truth,**_ her Inner self said bluntly. _**Cliche, but – **_

_Shut UP. I KNOW the truth. I've known it my whole life. _

_**Maybe you should reconsider the things you believed when you were twelve.**_

_I know what I want. _She hoped that hadn't sounded too immature.

Inner Sakura laughed, low and uncharacteristically sarcastic. _**You haven't thought about what you wanted in years.**_

_Yes I – _

_**About what you wanted? Hell no. You just thought about what you wanted as a kid, and stuck to it, because you're afraid to change. That's why it was such a big deal when you cut your ha – **_

_How would you know?_

_**...dumb question.**_

_...shut up._

_**All right, fine. Picture this. You, in an apron, washing dishes in the sink in front of the kitchen window. Your children are outside playing in the yard. Your husband comes home from his mission, and kisses you on the cheek. 'How was your day, dear?'**_

_Shut up shut up SHUT UP – _

'_**It was wonderful, honey. I cleaned house and got all the laundry done. I'm making your favorite for dinner tonight, and the children are playing in the yard.'**_

_...stop._

'_**That's just swell, dear. Isn't our life just perfect?' Is that what you want? Is that your idea of a perfect life?**_

_That's not how it would be. That's not the way it is._

_**How would you know? If you married Sasuke, do you think you would remain a kunoichi? Do you think he would let you?**_

_I CAN'T marry Sasuke, because he – _

_**You're not destined to be a parent. Neither is Sasuke. **_

_I hate you._

_**You hate yourself? That's an interesting thing to say. Maybe you should pay more attention to Gaara, you insane little girl, you. You're like two peas in a pod.**_

_You think Gaara would be a good father?_

_**Well...his kids would never get bullied.**_

_Yeah, because he'd probably eat them at birth_. As soon as she thought this, she winced as a pang of guilt coursed through her. Gaara was different now. He was a human being, he always had been. Had she really become so bitter, to think that way of people? Maybe she had really changed that much at –

THUMP THUMP THUMP.

"WHAT IS HE FUCKING _DOING_?" She yelled before she could stop herself. Gaara's footsteps paused. Her hands flew to her mouth.

_**SHIT SHIT SHIT SHIT SHIT – **_

She kept completely still, eyes widening until they threatened to pop out of her head, ears straining.

Footsteps. Down the hall.

_Oh my God._

Closer. Closer –

She yanked the covers up and dove under them, nearly ripping them in half in the process. Her eyes squeezed shut and she forced her breathing to even out, willed her heart beat to slow down...

The sound of her door being opened. Gaara's soft, almost silent breathing. Her fists clenched around the scratchy guest sheets.

She waited. Nothing. She let out a long, silent breath, relaxing. Thank God...he'd left...

"You."

She shrieked and jerked away from the voice, falling off the bed in the process.

When she managed to unearth her head from the tangle of sheets, she took in the menacingly tall form of Gaara, standing over her with a frown.

"G-Gaara," she said meekly, gazing up at him and feeling incredibly small and vulnerable under his piercing gaze. She gulped and experimentally tried to move her left leg. It was completely bound and unmovable. How she managed to do that was beyond her. "Um. Do you need something?"

"Do you?"

She swallowed again, mouth impossibly dry. "Uh...do I?"

_**Such a witty one, you**_, her inner self commented dryly.

"You're the one who was screaming about me," he deadpanned.

She searched his face, for lack of a response, for signs of anger. His expression was totally neutral. She looked again, more closely. The tenseness in his shoulders...she'd pissed him off.

Damn.

"I...was talking in my sleep," she said lamely.

He crouched, squatting on the floor beside her, leaning over her prone frame, frown deepening. "Is that so?" He asked, hot breath fanning across her face.

"Uhhh..." She was again reminded of his ability to strip her completely of her usual intelligent responses. A hot flush spread all the way from her neck to her forehead.

Oh God, she was blushing.

Why?

"Yes. I was dreaming," she croaked, blush deepening when he leaned in closer, as if his world depended on her answer. Her voice was stronger the second time she spoke. "And it wasn't about you, so it's really none of your business."

"Considering you're my guest here, I'd say it IS my business, Sakura-chan. I'm **very** interested."

What? WHAT?

She stared at him, his words replaying over and over again in her mind. He...he was teasing her! ROMANTICALLY!

...fine then.

She raised her head a fraction of an inch and rubbed her nose against his.

His black rimmed eyes widened and his mouth dropped open, before he pulled away so fast he fell on his butt.

His reaction was hilarious, but she couldn't laugh.

She finally managed to wrestle herself into a sitting position, frowning at him on his spot on the floor. "Why are you so afraid of people touching you?"

His eyes narrowed until they were just black slits with a tiny hint of aqua showing through. "None of your – "

"Well, I **am** your guest here," she snipped, throwing his own words back at him. "**I'd** say it's my business."

His lips curled upwards into a snarl, showing off unnaturally sharp teeth, and just as she'd started to wonder if she'd gone too far his expression fell back to his standard neutral. He stood up.

"Go to sleep," he said gruffly as he walked out the door, not looking back to see if she'd moved. She was left sitting on the floor, staring after him.

"I will never understand him," she told herself, untangling an arm. "Ever. In my life."

--


	10. Snap

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or any of it's characters.

--

Gaara, the man-made monster, had spent his entire life convincing himself that he feared nothing.

Gaara, the man-made monster, was terrified.

He closed his bedroom door behind him and let out a shaky sigh. A weary glance was thrown at his bed for a few seconds before he moved towards it, and by the time he was standing at the foot of it, he had regained his oh-so-perfect composure. His glazed eyes roved uncomprehendingly over his plain black sheets. He knew it would be difficult for him to sleep while keeping his mind away from the day's events. Hell, he hadn't even mastered falling asleep period. Maybe a shower...

_She suddenly thrust her head forward, jade eyes glittering defiantly, and for a second, he knew she was going to kiss him. He sucked in his breath and froze, panic overtaking all else. His black-rimmed eyes widened as his jaw dropped and she was __**really**__ too close now – _

A shower it was.

He moved towards his bathroom, and the toe of his foot brushed against something. He reflexively looked down.

Oh. Just his gourd.

It was leaning against his bed, silent, unmoving, and deceivingly innocent. He paused, unable to tear his gaze away, and swallowed dryly.

_He could feel her heartbeat through his sand, erratic and unstable. His sand squeezed, molding to her body, and a jagged spike of pain exploded in his forehead. She screamed, once, and his sand reflexively tightened, rendering her vocal chords useless. She broke off and struggled violently with all her waning strength. He could feel her dying. His ragged breathing mixed with her short, strained pants. Maybe he screamed too at one point, he wasn't sure. Her life was steadily being forced out of her, and when she died, he would never have to look at her haunting, familiar eyes ever again – _

He forced his eyes elsewhere, instead focusing on what was straight ahead of him, and swallowed a second time, with more difficulty. The blood tainted gaze of his gourd bore into his back, even after he shut the bathroom door and stepped into the shower.

--

"Sakura-chan, come on," Temari said.

"No."

"Just a few more."

"No."

"Yes."

"No."

"Please?"

"Sakura, just do it so she'll shut up," Shikamaru said irritably, not bothering to open his eyes.

"Traitor," Sakura shot at him, but begrudgingly raised herself on shaking arms.

"Straighten your back," Temari admonished.

Sakura mumbled something unintelligible under her breath, but did as she was told.

"Just ten more..." Temari coaxed.

With a sigh, Sakura lowered herself, then pushed upwards again. This really wasn't her idea of training. She could do pushups by herself. Shikamaru yawned loudly, sprawled on Kankuro's living room couch.

_...nine...ten._

"All right, I'm done," she said, dropping to the floor with a thud.

"Good for you," Shikamaru mumbled, only half awake.

"Get up, you've been lying there all afternoon," Temari quipped. "Make yourself useful and spar with Sakura."

"I'm a strategist. I don't spar."

"Well I'm no good at taijutsu, in case you didn't notice."

"Doesn't mean I am."

"Shikamaru, just – "

"For God's sake Temari, **get off me."**

"Fine." The blonde crawled off of Sakura's back and joined Shikamaru on the couch. Sakura remained on the floor, feeling that it was too much of an effort to get up. "What say you, Sakura?"

"'bought what?" She mumbled into the rug.

"Your training."

"I dunno...none of you are that good at taijutsu."

"Yeah...Kanky's got his dolls and Gaara's got his sand..."

"And Naruto's more of a ninjutsu type," put in Shikamaru. "If it doesn't look cool and/or make an explosion, it's not worth knowing."

"But you," Temari concluded. "Specialize in taijutsu and genjutsu, which, unfortunately, none of us really know much about."

"Maybe Kanky would let me spar with one of his puppets," Sakura said, still unmoving on the floor.

"Kanky? Since when am I Kanky?"

Sakura blinked at his sudden entrance, too tired to give a witty reply.

"Wanna spar one of your dolls with Sakura?" Temari asked for her.

"What, and accidentally chop her head off? I think not."

Sakura lay, listening to the two siblings argue and not offering any input. At the moment, she really didn't care abut training. At the moment, she cared about sinking into a warm bath and going to sleep.

It had been decided that Sakura would no longer stay with Temari, even though she doubted the older girl would chop her head off when her back was turned, but would instead remain at Gaara's house, due to the simple fact that Gaara had a guest bed, and Temari didn't.

Not that camping out on the couch wasn't just _oodles _of fun.

"Just forget it," she said, rolling onto her back and staring blearily at the ceiling. "I can work out a training schedule tomorrow."

"Whatever," Temari shrugged. "What's up with Gaara, by the way? He's being more of an asshole than usual."

"I don't know," she said uncomfortably. "PMS?"

"Maybe," Temari agreed, and let the subject drop, much to Sakura's relief.

The subject of Gaara had become rather sensitive, considering that the previous night she had Eskimo kissed him.

So maybe she shouldn't have done something quite so drastic, since it had obviously upset him. But dammit, he had been annoying her to all get out, and the urge to do something impulsive was all consuming.

...besides, she had kind of liked it.

Not that she was willing to admit that, of course.

--

Kakashi let out a barely audible sigh as the gates of Suna rose into view. Oh, thank God they were finally here.

Now, Kakashi was a patient man, if not anything else. But being alone with his moody student for weeks with no one else and an absolute lack of good literature had nearly strained him to the snapping point. And God knew Sasuke wasn't making any of this easier for him.

They passed through the gates without a hitch, being waved through by the guard, and moved into the city to search for their pink haired teammate and her temporary guardian.

--

"Hey, um, I'm sorry about last night."

Gaara gave her a flat stare. She squirmed uncomfortably.

"Aren't you going to say anything?"

He didn't reply.

So maybe trying to redeem herself had been a bad idea. She wasn't particularly enjoying herself, sitting across from Gaara at his kitchen table and trying to ignore his stony silence.

She shifted in her chair.

"Look, don't try and pretend you didn't deserve it," she told him, changing track. "You **were** the one that started it, you know."

Gaara still didn't say anything.

"Will you please just talk to me?" She threw her hands up in frustration. "I know I scared you, big deal! You've scared the hell out of me too many times to – "

"Scared me?" He interrupted suddenly. "What could possibly make you think that you could scare me?"

She stared at him incredulously. "Well you sure ran away pretty damn fast for someone who wasn't scared."

"You," he said simply, standing. "Do not scare me."

"What?" She said. "Hey, don't leave!"

Without thinking, she lurched forward and grabbed his wrist in an iron grip. He flinched violently.

"See," she said softly, tone completely transformed. "You **are** afraid of being touched."

Gaara didn't move to reclaim his wrist, only stared at her, wide eyes the only clue that he might not have been completely calm.

"Do you think I'll hurt you?" She questioned, standing. The top of her head only reached his shoulder. When had he grown so much?

He opened his mouth, and for a second, she was certain he was going to say something cold and belittling. She mentally braced herself for the blow.

"Sakura...it's not something you need to worry about."

She blinked up at him.

"That was diplomatic," she voiced her thoughts aloud.

"A skill I had to acquire when I became the Kazekage. Now kindly let go of my hand," he said dryly.

"No," she said simply. She had no idea why she was doing this, nor did she know what she wanted form him. She was going purely on instinct.

"And why not?"

"Just because."

His eyes narrowed.

"Haruno, let – "

"Is it me?"

"What?"

"Do I make you nervous or something?"

His brow creased. "What are you talking about?"

"The way you act. When you're around everyone else you're normal," she said patiently, while her heart raced at a mile a minute. "But when you're around me alone you get jumpy and nervous." She paused. "Well, nervous for you, anyways."

He seemed to be lost for words. Or he was retraining himself from throttling her. She wasn't really sure.

"Gaara?"

He suddenly turned, and before she knew what was happening, she was sprawled over the table, propping herself up on her elbows with Gaara leaning over her, an arm supporting him on either side of her hips. Her eyes widened and the blood rushed to her face.

_Oh, my God. He's snapped._

_**...Nice job, Sherlock. **_

His face was contorted into something between pain and fury. He glared down at her and she did her best not to flinch.

"You," he hissed. "Are – "

But whatever he was about to say was interrupted with a small cough from the kitchen doorway. He blinked rapidly and stood up, stepping a good four five feet away from her. She slowly slid down from the kitchen table, staring at the two people who had prevented Gaara from finishing whatever explanation he might have been about to give her.

She wasn't sure if she was relieved or not.

"Ah, are we interrupting?" Kakashi asked. Sasuke stood, silent as death, beside him.

--


	11. Tension

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any of it's characters.

--

Sakura nervously scratched her arm, eyes shifting from her brother to Gaara, then back again. When had they come in?

"What were you doing?" Sasuke asked, narrowed black eyes focused on Gaara, who glared stonily back. Kakashi pointedly examined the ceiling and said nothing.

Sakura opened her mouth wordlessly, then quickly shut it. She glanced to Gaara, silently pleading for help.

Obviously, she didn't **know** what they had been doing.

"None of your concern, Uchiha," he said dispassionately.

Because really, he didn't know either.

Sasuke's fist clenched, and Gaara tensed, preparing himself to fight. Obviously, the prodigy's ego was as easily damaged as it had been the last time they met.

When they were twelve.

But Sasuke just smirked at him, and turned towards Sakura.

"Why such low expectations, Sakura?" He asked, eyes flicking briefly to Gaara. "I would think that you couldn't get any worse than Lee, but apparently anything's possible for you."

Gaara unwillingly tensed again, closing his eyes and praying for patience, as Kakashi placed a warning hand on Sasuke's shoulder. "That's enough, Sasuke."

"Don't insult Lee or Gaara in front of me." Sakura's voice came out cold and hard, but even Gaara could detect the underlying tones of hurt.

For almost a second he felt a brief flicker of pride, for her hiding it so well, and resentment, for Sasuke making her feel bad.

He almost felt a small warmth at her jumping to his defense so quickly.

But just for a second.

Any longer, and the melee of foreign emotions would have usurped him into a sentimental overload.

The tension rolled throughout the kitchen as the three teenagers attempted to stare each other down. Kakashi sighed and delicately placed on hand over the left side of his face in an exasperated gesture, muttering something that sounded like "So dramatic..." Gaara resisted the primal urge to bare his teeth at the dark boy standing parallel to Sakura.

"So," Kakashi broke the silence at last. "As you can see, Sasuke and I got here all right."

"Did you run into any trouble?" Sakura asked, eagerly gripping onto the conversation.

"We did." Kakashi nodded. "But it wasn't from your mystery man, if that's what you've been worried about."

Sakura sighed with obvious relief, at the same time flushing with minor embarrassment. Sasuke scoffed. Gaara locked gazes with him, just **daring** him to say something.

"See, Sasuke sprained his ankle," Kakashi went on, in the same tone he used when he was making up some shot to shit excuse as to why he was late. Gaara and Sakura quickly looked at each other. "Which considerably slowed our progress, until we got to a village with some mediocre medics."

Sasuke had looked away from Gaara, and was now staring out the kitchen window, his ever present scowl deepening.

Had Gaara been any other person, he would have laughed.

A quick glance at Sakura confirmed that she was already trying not to.

_Sasuke_ had sprained his ankle.

"So," Kakashi continued, since no one else opted to say anything. "Any trouble here?"

"None," Gaara answered, voice monotone. "The Hokage hasn't cleared you to return to Konoha yet, but we are in touch.

"Good to know," Kakashi returned blandly. "Naruto and Shikamaru get here yet?"

"Of course." Sakura entered the conversation again.

"Excellent. Where are they?"

"They're staying at that big hotel."

"The one you pass as you walk in?"

"Yeah."

"All right." Kakashi nodded. "That's where Sasuke and I'll be."

"Okay."

Kakashi hesitated a moment, eye flickering from her to Gaara to the table, before turning to leave. Sasuke waited until he had left the kitchen before speaking.

"Where are you staying?" He directed at her.

"Me?" She blinked, most likely confused as to why he cared. And then, just to see if she could piss him off (obviously she wasn't very happy with him right now), she answered bluntly. "I'm staying with Gaara-san."

Something that might have been anger flashed in his dark eyes, before he broke eye contact with her and followed Kakashi out of the kitchen with a mumbled "Whatever."

Sakura fidgeted, only looking at Gaara when they heard the front door open and close.

"Um," she said, awkwardly gesturing towards the living room. "I'm going to go do some pushups."

Gaara glanced at her, taking in the confused tilt of her mouth and her anxious posture. For a second he harbored the insane urge to push her back against the table and completely obliterate any uncertainty she had.

Then it was gone, before he had time to ponder exactly what that meant.

He nodded in reply and turned away from her.

And suddenly everything was back to normal.

--

Sasuke fidgeted. Hid dark eyes flickered from the bathroom door, where Kakashi was taking a shower, to their hotel window, which had been left tauntingly open.

He crossed and uncrossed his arms, then finally settled for shoving them deep into his pockets. His foot tapped anxiously against the floor. The curtains fluttered obnoxiously.

Kakashi would be done any minute. He never took long showers. Liked to save the water.

He cast another uneasy glance to the bathroom door.

Okay. Out he goes.

Sasuke silently crept out the window.

--

Sakura studied her mangled nails intensely. Three were too short to damage, five were broken and chipped, and two were split straight down the middle.

Hmm. She needed a manicure.

"See anything interesting?" Kankuro peered at her hands over her shoulder. Instead of walking to Kankuro's house, Sakura decided to make him come to Gaara's.

Because it was too damn hot for her to go anywhere.

"No," she replied, bored tone revealing everything.

Kankuro ruffled her pink hair, working some painful tangles into it. She swatted his hand away and smudged some of the purple makeup on his cheek with her thumb. He retaliated by poking her in the armpit. She elbowed him in the gut. He shoved her. She raised an arm to strike back, paused, then dropped it, instead opting to flop onto the couch.

"I'm so damn bored," she moaned, one arm dangling off the edge.

"Go to sleep," Kankuro replied unsympathetically, dropping down beside her.

"I'm too bored for that." She tilted her head back and stared at the ceiling, wondering how long it would take to count all the tiny black specks on it.

"I'm so sorry."

"What do you do when you're bored?"

"I sleep."

She made a small noise of frustration in the back of her throat.

"Gaara's been gone a while," Kankuro idly commented.

"Uh-huh."

"Longer than usual."

"He **is** the Kazekage."

"I know."

They were silent a while longer until Sakura, in a burst of inspiration, grabbed Kankuro's foot and tickled it. He spasmodically jerked it back and moved a safe distance away from her.

"...I'm going to bed." He stated, watching her reproachfully. "Gaara won't mind if I crash here for the night."

"Have fun."

"Maybe I will."

"...ew."

"...shut up."

--

Sasuke wasn't quite sure what to do with his newfound (and most likely soon to be short-lived) freedom. The concept of being away from his guardian for more than five minutes had become foreign to him.

And Suna was incredibly boring.

He could go see Sakura.

_No...she's annoying, remember?_

He wasn't in the mood to put up with Naruto...and he didn't like Shikamaru.

He turned his gaze upward, eyes roaming the rooftops of Suna's shops and homes. He caught a bit of dusty red out of the corner of his eye.

He focused on it.

His sharingan flashed.

--

Sakura lay on her back on the guest mattress, having followed Kankuro's example and gone to bed.

Except she couldn't sleep.

The sheets had long since been kicked to the foot of the bed, and she made no effort to pull them back up. She placed a palm over her chest, then put it back on the bed beside her.

God...she was so bored.

_I wish Temari was here...or Naruto...or Shikamaru_...she thought absently.

Any further remorseful thoughts were interrupted by a small thump from a few doors down.

From Gaara's room.

Her breath hitched. She hadn't heard Gaara come in. Which meant that he hadn't. If there was one thing she prided herself on, it was her sense of hearing.

A robber?

Sakura stealthily crept out of bed and slipped to her door, where she hesitated.

Hmm. Should she go get Kankuro? That had been the first thing Kakashi had taught them. If backup was available, go get it.

_Or_, she could go alone and kick the hell out of whoever had the balls (and stupidity) to break into the Kazekage's home.

Decisions, decisions.

She pushed her door open and, without a sound, began her silent trek to Gaara's bedroom.

--

Gaara collapsed against the wall, silently gasping with pain. His gourd dropped with a not so quiet thud beside him. He raised his hand and pressed it against his bleeding shoulder, trying to stem the flow. He didn't know what to focus on first...God, everything hurt.

Now, he was aware his tolerance for pain was abnormally low. But he was also aware that he was seriously injured, and needed to stop the bleeding.

He tried to stand and wobbled unsteadily, finally sliding down the wall into an undignified sprawl on the floor. Ugh. He hadn't felt this weak in years.

He closed his eyes and leaned his head back, breathing raggedly through his mouth. Okay. Maybe after a few minutes' rest, he would be stable enough to move.

Suddenly his solitude was interrupted. His door was thrown open and the light from the hallway was cast over his bleeding, pathetic form. He squinted at the ground, not wanting to look up as the figure in the doorway froze.

"Gaara," Sakura whispered in a horrified voice, eyes huge. "You're bleeding..."

He grit his teeth. He **didn't want **her to see him like this. Why couldn't she have just stayed in her room?

But it was too late for him to tell her it was nothing. She'd obviously spotted the blood staining not only him, but the wall and floor beneath him.

And he knew he couldn't tell her he was fine. He was bleeding and injured and weakened, and if he didn't do something about it, he had no doubt he would die.

He lifted his head slightly to return her stare.

"**Help me**," he rasped.

She was at his side in a second, experienced hands prodding his body, searching for wounds.

"...stomach and shoulder," he said in a strained voice, deciding to help her out.

She gently slid one hand behind his back, helping him to sit up while she cut the top of his robes off.

"Gaara," she said cautiously, eyes fixed on the gaping slash on his shoulder, and the prominent burn on his stomach. "How did you do this?"

He didn't answer at first, closing his eyes as her chakra pushed its way into his body, taking assessment of the damage.

"Uchiha," he said eventually.

Her hands stilled and she stared at the floor, before once again forcing her chakra through his skin, this time to begin the healing process.

"I see," she said quietly. "You two got into a fight?"

"No," he said sharply, and she started with surprise. "He attacked me."

"Oh." She suddenly sounded exhausted. "...what happened to Sasuke?"

Her words lingered hauntingly between them. _What did you do to him?_

"Nothing. He got bruised, but is otherwise fine," Gaara said. "Your sensei broke us apart."

She removed her hands from his abdomen and moved to his shoulder.

"How long have you been bleeding?" She asked quietly.

"...ten or fifteen minutes."

In the green glow from her chakra he could barely see her facial expression. Her eyes had softened into something unreadable, and she was starting to look incredibly drained. He turned his gaze away, staring instead at the slowly closing gap on his shoulder.

"Done." She sat up and smiled at him, expression tired.

He looked at her critically. "How much chakra did you use to heal me?"

"I dunno," she slurred, staring at her hands. "A lot?"

Which was the last thing she said before pitching forward onto his lap.

Gaara sat there, propped against the wall, and stared at her. Her pink hair was fanned over her face, hiding her expression, and her deep, even breathing told him that she had fallen asleep.

Right onto him.

He vaguely realized that he should be embarrassed, or angry, or at least feel something. But he didn't. He simply sat still, not daring to move for fear of waking her.

And she was warm.

Very very warm.

He closed his eyes.

--


	12. Cliches

--

Most people wake up thinking 'I'm hungry.'

Others wake up thinking 'Dammit, why'd I wake up?"

Hardly anyone wakes up thinking 'FUCK!'

Of course, not everyone awoke to find themselves snuggled up to an ex-psycho.

Sakura Haruno, however, was one of those people unfortunate (or fortunate, she hadn't really decided yet) enough to wake up and find themselves in just that position.

And it seemed that she was indeed in an even more awkward position than she had (collapsed) fallen asleep in.

Gaara had barely shifted at all. He was still propped up against the wall in what had to be a very uncomfortable sitting position. His legs were sprawled out into a V shape in front of him, which also had to be incredibly uncomfortable. His head was tilted back and resting against the wall, soft breaths puffing from his open mouth.

She, always the lucky one, had in fact moved.

She was lying on her side, in between his spread legs. Her arms had somehow wrapped themselves around his abnormally slim waist, and she was currently snuggling her face into his abdomen. She lay there, too utterly mortified to move.

Yes, her life just kept getting better and better.

They probably looked adorable.

Disgustingly adorable.

Could this perhaps become any more embarrassingly cliche?

One of his arms moved, pulling her more snugly against him. She froze. His breathing didn't change. The arm remained possessively thrown across her back.

Oh **God**. Of **course **it could.

Now there was **no way **she could escape without waking him.

_Why? _She mentally wailed. _What have __**I**__ done to piss the universe off? I haven't sworn revenge against my brother or gone on a mad slaughtering rampage. Why me? Whhhyyyyy?_

_**...you know you like it.**_

Sakura chose to ignore that suggestive comment from her inner self and instead took assessment of her current situation.

Hmm. Gaara was asleep. If she moved she'd most likely wake him up. Her neck hurt like hell.

She suddenly had the strong urge to forcefully slam her head into the wall.

But that would have woken him up.

She shut her eyes tightly, gritting her teeth. Why the **hell** did she have to fall asleep on him!

Why the hell didn't he move her!

_**Too many why's...just jump him while he's groggy and get over it.**_

_Shut up!_

Sakura lay there, completely helpless.

Because really, what was someone supposed to do in a situation like this?

She gave a despaired stare to the wall behind Gaara's back. Maybe she could go back to sleep. That way, at least, when Gaara woke up she wouldn't be awake to witness his reaction. Maybe he would silently slide out from under, and she'd wake up alone. Then they could go about pretending it didn't happen.

Yeah. Let's go with that.

Ten minutes later, her absolutely genius plan was interrupted when Gaara stirred, brow furrowing as he let out a quiet noise of unease. Her eyes snapped open.

Well, there was always the chance that if she remained utterly and completely still, he'd stop moving and go back to sleep.

That plan, however, was also obliterated when his left leg drew back and then lashed out, hitting her right below her neck so hard her grip on him was ripped away, and she was sent flying several feet backwards, knocking the wind out of her. She landed in a disarrayed slump, mouth agape with shock.

H–he'd kicked her!

He couldn't be **that** angry, could he?

She quickly crawled a safe distance away, lest he decide that yes, he was that angry.

But he didn't move. Clutching a hand to her erratically beating heart, she stared at him disbelievingly. A finger twitched, and then he was still. She cautiously crept forward, crouching down next to him. His face had relaxed, and the only change in his posture was his head, which was now tilted downwards, chin resting on his chest.

He was still asleep.

What. The. Hell.

She reached out a hand to tap his shoulder (Or punch him in the face. The asshole had kicked her, after all.), but before her finger came within one foot of him, his eyes suddenly snapped open, as did his mouth.

Then he screamed Bloody Mary.

She herself screamed too as she violently jerked backwards, banging into his bedframe.

_**WHAT THE FUCK!**_

But he didn't stop there. As soon as the first scream died out, he let out a second, then another. They came in volleys.

As she stared at him, eyes wide, she realized something.

He was having a nightmare.

"G–gaara," she tried shakily, too afraid to move any closer to him. "Wake up."

His hands violently tore at his hair and face, and Sakura realized with alarm that he was drawing blood. She rushed towards him, attempting to grab his flailing arms. Her sharingan, after laying dormant for so long, surfaced, flashing and spinning.

As she tried to restrain him, it never occurred to her to worry about his sand.

One of his hands swiped across her cheek, nails gouging into her skin. She caught it, wincing, then grabbed his other arm. He thrashed, but, physical strength being her forte, she restrained him, straddling him and shoving his wrists against the wall.

"Gaara stop it!" She yelled in his face.

He snarled in reply, bucking under her with such force she was almost knocked off.

"Gaara!"

She released his hands and drew back her own, slapping him sharply across the cheek.

He quieted immediately and stared at her, obviously stunned.

"Fucking...idiot," she panted, praying he had woken up.

They sat there for a few minutes, breathing heavily and staring at each other. His eyes slowly cleared as he took in the sight of her in front of him. Neither of them made any effort to move.

"What happened?" He asked finally.

"You...were dreaming," she said in between breaths as her adrenaline slowly left, leaving her feeling limp and exhausted. "You're pretty screwed up...you know? I really have to wonder...what the hell you could have been dreaming about to scream your head off like that. I've never – are you listening?"

He was staring at her collar bone. She flushed, and was about to smack him again, when his eyes left and trailed upwards, resting on her cheek.

"What?" She asked defensively.

He reached out and gently touched her cheek. Her eyes widened reflexively at this uncharacteristic gesture, and she locked gazes with him. Her brow furrowed confusedly when he didn't remove his hand.

"Gaara, what – "

"I hurt you."

She swallowed. "What are you talking about?"

His thumb pressed softly against her skin in reply, and she felt her cheek sting.

"Oh. You just scratched me," she said, uneased by his behavior. "It's no big deal."

He lowered his eyes to her collar bone again. "And that?"

She followed his gaze. A large, ugly bruise was already starting to form.

"I, um," she started nervously. "Fell."

He gave her a flat stare. She refused to meet his eyes.

"Sa. Ku. Ra," he said slowly, tone demanding.

"Um...you kicked me."

He was silent. It was starting to unnerve her.

"I hurt you too, you know." She looked pointedly at his cheek, where she could dimly see a red hand print in the almost morning light pouring through the window.

Gaara closed his eyes, taking on a pained expression. "Not the same," he muttered.

Then he suddenly reached out and captured her with his arms. She had about a second's warning before she was crushed into his chest. Her breath caught in her throat and his arms tightened around her shoulders, as if telling her he refused to let go whether she liked it or not.

"What..." she trailed off, blinking, helplessly confused.

"I'm sorry," he rasped, mouth right next to her ear. She flushed brilliantly.

"Gaara...it's okay," she said, shaken. _What the hell is going on?_

He didn't reply, just buried his nose into the crook of her neck.

_What? What?_

"...what're you doing?"

"What do you think?" He replied, sounding agitated that she wasn't responding.

Well of course she knew what she **thought**. But Gaara couldn't possibly be **hugging** her, could he? That was so blindingly out of character.

Of course, so were the phrases 'Help me,' and 'I'm sorry.'

But he'd said them.

"Gaara," she said softly, not really knowing what else to do. What was really scaring her was the fact that she hadn't sent him flying into next week yet.

She **knew** what he was doing. She **knew** it was emotional and sentimental and romantic and so **wrong**. She knew that he...they were embracing...but she wasn't doing anything about it.

Because she didn't want to.

She wanted him to keep holding her.

**That** was what scared her.

"Why?" She asked confusedly, still not moving. _Why me? Why anyone? Why not someone else? _She pressed her face into his shoulder, sighing. "Why?"

His arms tightened as if to pull her more flush into him, and he inhaled deeply, making her shiver. "I don't know."

Cautiously, she slid one arm behind his neck, letting it lie there. "I'm confused."

"Join the club."

She rested her chin on his shoulder, letting her eyelids drop halfway. She breathed in. He smelled good.

What was happening?

He suddenly pushed her back partly, and her brow furrowed. Had he changed his mind?

"I'm sorry," he said again, and she realized he was looking at the scratches on her cheek and her collar bone.

"It wasn't your fault." She shook her head, trying to ignore how horribly cliche that sounded.

He placed a hand on the back of her neck, pushing. She obediently leaned forward.

Then suddenly they were kissing.

Sakura, who had never been kissed, wasn't really sure what to think about it. In truth, it had always seemed kind of disgusting to her. Yes, she had fantasized about kissing Sasuke before. But only because it would mean him acknowledging he liked her back. The actual kissing didn't sound all that appealing. Slobbering all over each other and mixing germs? Ew. Not to mention how unsanitary it was.

But this was different from anything she'd expected.

For starters, she was still **straddling** him. For another, neither of them leaned into it, their lips just touching awkwardly. Both pairs of eyes remained open, uncertainly looking at the other.

_**...for fuck's sake. This is so pathetic.**_

Sakura mentally rolled her eyes, but couldn't help but agree. Steeling herself, she gently pushed her lips against his, moving them slowly in an open and close motion that she could only guess she was supposed to do. Gaara cautiously responded, leaning into the kiss as his hand gently fisted in her hair. Her eyes fluttered shut.

Roughly fifteen seconds later, she had decided she liked it. And, judging by the eagerness with which Gaara now kissed her, so did he.

"Whoa...you two getting it on?"

Sakura let out a muffled yelp of surprise into Gaara's mouth, before they wrenched their lips apart to stare disbelievingly at the doorway, where Kankuro stood, eyebrow raised.

One of his lips was spasmodically twitching. It was obvious he was trying not to laugh.

"Took you guys long enough," he choked out, ignoring Gaara's glare.

"What." Gaara's voice dripped with menace. "Do you **want**?"

Kankuro innocently shrugged, still smirking. "Well, first I heard you screaming like a maniac, so I thought you were having another nightmare. But then it suddenly got quiet, so I naturally assumed something was up." He paused. "I thought I'd come check on you, but," At this point he had started struggling not to laugh again. "Obviously, Sakura-chan's got it covered."

Sakura buried her face in her hands, mortified beyond comprehension.

"Kankuro," she moaned. "**Go away**."

"Ah, busy getting busy, huh?" He swayed on the balls of his feet and turned to leave. "Remember to use protection, kiddos. God knows you can't afford to get – "

He was cut off by a tendril of sand forcefully slamming the door shut. They listened to him laugh hysterically for a few seconds before returning downstairs.

"Jesus Christ," Sakura muttered.

Gaara sighed softly, black rimmed eyes staring into space, before he slid her off of him. She looked at him questioningly, but he didn't offer to say anything, just watched her quietly.

He was waiting for her to leave.

She was shocked at the sudden disappointment that flowed through her.

"...can I stay?"

Her words were meek and shy, and for a second she hated herself for it. She was supposed to be strong now, not the suck up little girl she'd been in her Sasuke days.

But she forgot all that when Gaara, looking at her oddly as if she might vanish, gave a tiny nod.

She glanced uncertainly towards the bed, and immediately dismissed it. She was not ready to literally sleep with him.

_**...it's the same thing, even if it's on the floor.**_

She ignored that and cautiously scooted back towards his side. Neither of them said anything, and, after a few minutes of silence, Sakura drowsily let her head drop onto his shoulder. Her breathing deepened and her eyes fluttered closed. She could figure everything out in the morning, when she wasn't so tired.

She was semi-aware, in her half asleep state, that at some point Gaara had cautiously wrapped an arm around her shoulders.

Hmm. Maybe she liked her life full of cliches.

--


	13. Confusion

--

There was just something refreshing about waking up with a body next to you, and then realizing it wasn't dead.

Gaara studied the sleeping girl, squinting through the late morning sunlight. She had moved away from him in the few hours they had slept, and was now lying on the floor, arms neatly substituted for a pillow. One foot was in his lap, and he stared, wondering if he should exercise his newfound sense of humor by licking it.

Then again, he doubted she'd appreciate it. As little as he knew about the female mind, he could vaguely assume that being awakened by a wet tongue sliding along her heel would not be Sakura's idea of a perfect morning.

So he quietly sat against the wall and began his patient wait for her to wake up on her own.

And tried not to think about why they had fallen asleep together in the first place.

"_I'm confused."_

"_Join the club."_

He closed his eyes, frustrated. What in the **hell** had he been thinking? He, having had no prior emotional experience whatsoever, had decided to go purely on instinct.

And apparently instinct meant turning himself into a gooey romantic.

But at least she had responded positively. He wasn't really sure what would have happened if she had rejected him. So that made them...?

Boyfriend and girlfriend?

No...that sounded too normal. And juvenile. And just...not them.

Lovers?

Well...if he wanted to get technical, to be lovers one had to have sex, and seeing as they hadn't done anything further than hugging and kissing and falling asleep together...

Not that he would mind having sex with Sakura. He supposed it'd feel nice...

I mean, not that he thought about sex all the time. Just occasionally.

Er...

**Dammit**, he hated hormones.

Sakura snuffled softly in her sleep and scooted closer, curling herself against his side. He stared blankly at the ceiling, and eventually, because those damn urges were acting up again, placed a hand on her head.

He could only imagine how awkward things were going to be when she woke up.

But he waited.

He had things to ask her.

--

The first thing Sakura noticed as she gradually left her slumber was the warmth. It was nice and comforting and too far away for her liking. She pressed herself closer to its source.

The second thing she noticed was the faint tingling along her scalp. A few seconds later she established that someone was playing with her hair, which was mostly likely what had woken her up.

"...stop," she mumbled, refusing to open her eyes. Unseen to her, Gaara arched the area of skin where his eyebrows would be, had he been blessed with some, and paused. She sighed happily and scooted a little closer to the nice warmth that, coincidentally, also smelled pretty good.

Then whoever it was started twirling her hair around their fingers again.

Irritated, she drowsily lifted an arm and grabbed the offending object away from her hair, pulling it down to eye level for inspection as she blearily opened her eyes.

Oh. A hand. Rough. Pale. Kind of calloused. How odd.

"The hell?" She muttered, lifting her head.

To find Gaara's pale green eyes peering down at her.

They stared at each other, Sakura growing awkwardly aware that she was cuddling his right leg.

"...morning," she offered.

"...give me my hand back."

She released it but still didn't move, lying on her side and looking up at him with sleepy eyes. Hmm. Now how was she supposed to act around him? Somehow, she just couldn't work up the courage to lean up and kiss his forehead, or something similarly romantic. Best now to act as a sleepy innocent. He'd made all the moves last night, right? Well, he could damn well do it again.

They stayed like that for a moment, Sakura staring at his left knee from her low to the ground perspective, and Gaara gazing contemplatively into space. In the silence, Sakura eventually realized the scent she had noticed earlier was Gaara. Which was a nice improvement to how he had smelled when they were twelve, a charming mix of blood and mental illness.

She closed her eyes, deciding that he wasn't going to try anything anytime soon. Just as she had almost slipped asleep again, he spoke again, calm, low pitched voice rolling through the still air.

"Morning."

She smiled against the fabric of his pants.

--

Gaara stood first, not acknowledging or caring when his back popped in several places. Sakura watched him for a few seconds, a silent, unreadable emotion mutedly shining in her jade eyes, before she followed, wincing as several of her joints creaked and groaned.

"Let's not sleep on the floor anymore..." She sighed, rubbing the small of her back.

"Duly noted."

She smiled at him, nervously but sincerely, and took a step towards him. "I could give you a massage, if you want."

For a split second, the corner of his mouth quirked upwards, and he took a moment to digest the fact that she was brave enough to say that. "Maybe later."

She raised a pale eyebrow, surprised she had gotten him close to consenting.

Neither of them said anything for a few seconds. Finally Gaara spoke.

"Sakura."

"Mmm?"

"I need to change."

"Oh!" Her eyes trailed over his upper torso, which was bare, due to her kunai the night before, and she minutely blushed. "All right."

She left, clicking the door shut behind her. After standing outside his bedroom door for about five minutes, she finally turned and walked downstairs. She was about to head for the living room, but, realizing she was starving, opted instead for the kitchen, where she found Kankuro sitting at the small kitchen table with a piece of toast.

"So, get any action?" He asked with deceivingly innocent curiosity.

"Good morning," she returned. "Where are the pans?"

He gave her an amused look and pointed below the stove. "I take it things didn't go well?"

She glared at him over her shoulder as she retrieved a skillet. "Things went fine."

"Oh. You're PMS-ing?"

She raised an eyebrow. "What makes you say that?"

"Oh, I dunno. Maybe the 'Fuck off, world,' sign you have stuck to your forehead."

She straightened and turned to face him, scowling. "You know, I was in a perfectly good mood before you started asking me if I got it on with your little brother."

"...so did you?"

"No, you jackass, I'm a virgin."

"Nice to know," Gaara said mildy from the doorway.

She felt her face burn with embarrassment, and quickly turned a heated glare on Kankuro, who was grinning again. _I do not want you here_, her gaze said. _You are an asshole, and I am mad at you._

Which was so untrue she wasn't even sure she could admit it to herself. She was so glad Kankuro was there, at that moment, keeping the awkwardness at bay, she could have kissed him. She was immensely grateful he was there with his light prodding, his mere presence in the room postponing the imminent conversation of, 'Okay, you poured your demonic little heart out to me, let's go do some boyfriend-girlfriend stuff.'

Then he left.

Stood right the fuck up, waved, gave a cheery, "I'll leave you guys alone," and left her with his brother without a backwards glance.

Oh. That tricky bastard.

She scratched her head, uneasily aware of the growing tension. "Uh...do you have any eggs?"

"...why?"

"Why do you think?" Hmm. That had come out more snappish than she'd meant. She grinned at him to show she wasn't serious.

He wordlessly salvaged four from the fridge, to her surprise (it was hard to imagine any animals besides humans living out here in the desert – of course, she supposed, there were some perks to being Kazekage), and handed them to her. She quickly cracked them over the skillet and handed him the shells, then waved him to go sit at his small table. The table where he had leaned over her and snarled, where his breath had been so hot across her neck and his eyes...oh lord, he had such beautiful eyes...

"What are you smiling at?"

The dreamy grin dropped off her face immediately, and she turned back to the slowly heating eggs to hide her blush. "Nothing..."

She stirred the eggs around for a few minutes before turning off his stove and digging around in his cabinets once again, emerging seconds later with two clay plates. She tipped equal amounts of scrambled eggs onto them (gone were the days when she offered a certain male more than half of the portion, since she was a girl, and boys "needed to eat more") and carried the plates to the table, giving one to Gaara and then sitting opposite to him.

_**You'd make a wonderful – **_

_Don't say it._

Their meal stretched out for exactly four minutes and twenty eight seconds. They sat silently, letting the awkwardness ooze through the pores of everything, before she abruptly stood and carried the dishes to the sink. Gaara stood too, and silently followed her. He hesitantly placed a hand on her shoulder, and her heart stopped. She wondered if it would be rude to reach around and bite his hand off.

"I need to leave," he stated. She noticed with a small pang of remorse his voice had returned to its usual flat monotone. So different from the night before, when it had been rough and unstable with emotion and uncertainty.

"Who's watching me?" She said.

"Temari. She's off-duty today," he said, in that same impassive voice. Her brow furrowed. It was like he was using an emotional block to hide behind.

_**We know how to fix that though, don't we?**_

She allowed herself to reply,_ yes, we do_, before she captured Gaara's face in both her hands and pressed her lips against his.

It was, in so many ways, different from the one they'd shared last night. For one thing, she was the one who instigated it. For another, it only took about half a second before Gaara got over his _what the hell? _expression and kissed her back. Sakura didn't relinquish her grip on his face, and his strong, wiry arms snaked around her waist, pulling her closer. She sighed softly, before breaking the kiss and leaning her forehead against his, giving him a lazy, sated smile.

"Gaaaarrrrraaaaaa," she said, in a quiet, happy tone, drawing his name out. She liked the way it felt on her lips. She liked how their previous awkwardness had vanished.

He opened his mouth and flicked his tongue out, drawing it in a slow line from the corner of her mouth up her cheek. She closed her eyes and pressed herself closer, still processing that he had just licked her and she'd enjoyed it. Her hands dropped from his face to wrap around his neck. She was only dimly aware that his kitchen counter was digging into her back.

"We have things to talk about when you get back," she said. She kissed him again, softly, affectionately, before wiggling out of his embrace and walking towards the living room to await Temari's arrival.

--

"He what?"

Temari stared at the pink haired girl sitting cross-legged across from her, and allowed herself to be astonished. No. Gaara couldn't have.

"He kissed me," Sakura confirmed, looking lost and worried. "And then we fell asleep together and I made breakfast and I kissed him again and then, I dunno, I sort of bolted – "

"You ran away from him?" Temari interrupted.

"No, I didn't **literally** run," Sakura said, shaking her head. "I said we needed to talk, and then **casually** left him standing in the kitchen."

Temari rolled her eyes and resisted the urge to grin. For someone who'd never gone on a single date before, Sakura certainly seemed to have some good instincts when it came to keeping men wrapped around her finger.

"But **you **know you ran," Temari guessed. "Right?"

"Yeah," the younger of the two said. "I was scared. I mean, I kissed him and then we hugged for almost three minutes. Three minutes, just standing there and saying nothing, and being perfectly fine with it!"

"I don't see the problem here."

"Temari!" Sakura seemed frantic. She gestured wildly with her hands. "I said his name for no reason! I liked it! He **licked** me!"

"And?" She decided to ignore Sakura's last comment.

Sakura seemed lost for words. Temari watched, amused, as the girl's internal battle raged on.

"We kissed – !"

"Okay," Temari interjected. "You have feelings for Gaara and you don't feel like admitting it. Now that we've passed that hurdle, what else have you got swimming around in your screwed up mind?"

Her eyes narrowed. "Who said I had **feelings** – "

Temari fixed her with a blunt look. "You said his name and liked it."

Sakura floundered wordlessly for a few seconds, before giving her a helpless look. "But...I can't..."

"When was the last time you felt something for that Uchiha brat?" Temari said, voice steely. Sakura gave her a bewildered look, before realization set in.

"...a day or so after I arrived in Suna."

"Mhmm." She didn't offer anything else, leaving the girl to her own conclusions. After a few seconds' silence, she stood. "I'm going to go do some target practice out back. Coming?"

Sakura shook her head, and Temari left her alone, trying not to linger on the younger girl's disturbed expression.

--

Sasuke scowled, feeling broody. His right cheek throbbed painfully from where Gaara had managed to strike him. He resisted the urge to touch it.

Kakashi was stretched on the sandy ground a few yards away, one eye on his little book of porn. He certainly wasn't going to be letting the raven haired prodigy out of his sight any time soon.

They were in a deserted training ground on the very outskirts of Suna, and had been there since the previous night.

"_Do you realize the political damage you could have created?"_

He doubted he'd ever seen Kakashi that angry. After yanking him away from the bleeding Kazekage, Kakashi had roughly shaken him as he hung limply in the man's grasp. Gaara had left soon after, expression unreadable.

_Kakashi's jaw was taut, eyes blazing. His lone sharingan whirred angrily. Sasuke stared back, contemplating if he should risk going after Gaara._

Sasuke crossed his arms, posture stiffening.

"_No one saw you?"_

"_Yes, I already told you!"_

"_You're positive."_

"_Yes!"_

Sasuke mentally scoffed. Yes, he was willing to admit that assuming he would face the same consequences for picking a fight with Gaara now rather than three years ago had been a bit of an oversight on his part. But then again, he wasn't afraid of death.

He never really had been.

"_Stay with me at all times and hope to God that boy doesn't decide to report this. You attacked the __**Kazekage**__."_

He glared at the ground, wishing that he and Sakura and Naruto could just get the fuck out of this place and go back to Konoha. It was hot during the day and cold at night and he was sunburned and there was sand everywhere he fucking looked – how did people **live** here?

A small tingle of chakra drew his attention away from brooding. He squinted into the distance, taking in the speck on the horizon, speeding towards them and getting bigger every second.

He immediately glanced toward Kakashi for instruction, but his sensei didn't offer any words, just stared contemplatively at the sky. After a few seconds he snapped his book shut and gave Sasuke a hard look.

"Have fun," he said, and disappeared.

Sasuke, stared, stunned, at where the man had previously lay. The fuck? Had he just left him?

He turned towards the oncoming chakra again and was shocked to find its owner much closer than it had been the last time he'd glimpsed it. Way closer.

Before he had time to prepare himself, whatever it was was rushing him. A scream of "**SASUKE!**" tore through the air, followed a split second later by the ground beneath his feet exploding.

--


	14. Fight Your Feelings

--

Upon Temari's departure, Sakura sat in the same place for a long time. She wanted to be angry. She really did. She** tried** to be angry. Angry at Temari, and angry at herself for not defending her relationship with Sasuke. Did she think it was that simple? That she'd been chasing him for years because of a **crush**?

Feelings didn't just **go away**.

And she tried especially hard to ignore that familiar helpless sensation when she remembered her pathetic silence in response to Temari's questions. Her not-even attempt for an adequate defense. Because she **did** love Sasuke, she had just been too startled to say so.

_**You have some fucked up denial issues.**_

But she couldn't be angry, despite however much she wanted to be. _Because Temari was right_. God, she didn't want her to be, but she was.

She didn't love him. She hadn't for weeks, and she hadn't even noticed.

Sakura wanted someone who loved her back. Someone who saw and respected her for who she was and what she could do without treating her like some fragile little weakling. She wanted him to care about her, for reasons other than producing an heir. He needed to be there for her, and allow her to return the favor. The relationship would be between equals.

And fuck her if those were unrealistic goals, but dammit, she wanted them.

Sasuke couldn't give her any of that.

As for Gaara...

Well. One life-altering decision at a time.

--

"You hear something?"

Shikamaru lazily opened one eye to glance at the blonde boy peering out the hotel window.

"No," he yawned.

"I heard something."

"That's great."

"Wanna go see what it was?"

"Not really."

"You're not curious?"

"..."

"I'm going to go check it out," he announced.

Shikamaru lifted his hand in a lazy half wave. "Have fun."

Naruto spared him an exasperated glare before flipping the catch, pushing open, and slipping out the window.

--

Pink. Pink and red were the only things he managed to discern from the blur that had just split the ground open before the force of the blow sent him spinning backwards. He shot out a hand and clawed at the ground to retain some sense of balance, then flipped safely backwards onto his feet. It launched itself at him again, and he just barely managed to defend himself.

"Sakura, what the hell!" He yelled, quickly blocking an uppercut that would have dislocated his jaw.

She didn't answer, just grit her teeth and unleashed another onslaught of attacks that could **so easily **liquefy him. Faced with a literal human powerhouse, Sasuke, for the first time in his life, became suddenly aware of how very soft and vulnerable the human body was.

She wasn't necessarily fast – contrarily, she was really a strategic type. It was more the knowledge she could literally shatter him if she so chose that particularly bothered him. And he wasn't really sure how effective his sharingan would be against another user – albeit, an embarrassingly untrained one.

Plus, it was Sakura. Sure, he had been perfectly happy to kill either of his teammates many-a-month prior, but come on, people change...

His distraction gained him a glanced blow to his ribs. He almost stumbled, instead using the momentum to fall backwards, switch his weight to one hand, and swing one leg outward to sink into her stomach. He hesitated at the last second. Scarlet eyes flashing, his sister **dearest** grasped the opportunity to knock him back a second time, bearing down. There was a brief second when their eyes met, and his vision just barely began to swim. Oh, **fuck** –

His own sharingan rose to the surface, instinctively rising to counter her own.

She froze, and he instantly knew he had taken it too far. She hadn't known what she was doing. He knew **exactly** was he was doing. The red in her eyes faded almost immediately to viridian, virtually overflowing with raw terror. She abruptly dropped to her knees, overcome with tremors. She gasped harshly at the same moment he forced his sharingan down, stumbling in his haste to reach her. "Sakura!"

What happened next literally redefined what could ever possibly go wrong.

There was an explosion. Not of the literal category, but realistic enough to send sand flying everywhere with the resulting force enough to make Sasuke think, 'Oh, an explosion,' before he was sent flying backwards. Then, as if that hadn't been loud enough, Naruto was suddenly shrieking in his abused ear. "Teme! What happened? What's wrong with Sakura-chan!"

And that might have been okay. But when he opened his eyes, it was to discover a tall red-headed male crouching protectively in front of the shivering girl with pink hair almost as if he were her (**mate**? What the **hell** was going on with those two?) bodyguard. Half a second later, he'd deducted that yes, it was definitely the glowering Kazekage whom had made the sand so explosive.

And since when did the psycho snarl? Did this constitute as a relapse?

Oh, and there was Temari, hovering beside Naruto and glaring down at him, lips twisted downwards. Wonderful.

Then, to his further ire, he realized Gaara would never be able to half-stand, half-squat in that certain position if he was still injured. So, not only was he using himself as a physical barricade between himself and Sakura, but whereas **he** had a giant bruise covering half his face, Gaara was peachy keen.

Sakura was sucking in huge, gasping breaths, and Sasuke noticed with a small jolt of surprise her face was completely dry. Better yet, she was trying to stand. Maybe he hadn't hit her as hard as he'd thought.

She stumbled into Gaara, and his eyes flickered away from Sasuke for the briefest of seconds before he pulled her wordlessly against him. She gratefully leaned against him as a substitute crutch.

Sasuke twitched.

"Sasuke..." Naruto was staring at him disbelievingly. It wasn't hard to put two and two together. "Did you use your sharingan against Sakura?"

--

"...accidentally."

The Kyuubi vessel was on him in an instant, short nails leaving imprints in his neck as Sasuke's back hit the sand.

"Naruto – stop!" Sakura lurched forward, and would have toppled to the ground if Gaara hadn't caught her. "I attacked him first!"

Gaara stared down at the distraught girl in his arms, currently trying to hide that she was obviously struggling to remain upright. What did it feel like, to be struck by such sickening fear that you were left emotionally distraught and physically drained?

_Kill him kill him __**kill him **__—_

Viridian eyes stared at him pleadingly. A resigned trendil of sand solidified itself and plucked the blonde off his dark teammate. For a second Naruto refused to let go, bringing Sasuke into the air with him, and Gaara considered shaking them** just** to see what would happen. But then Naruto released his collar, and Sasuke plopped back onto the ground.

"**Fuck**, Gaara, let me go!" Furious blue eyes glared at him. "Look what he did to Sakura-chan!"

Sakura's head snapped up angrily and she had to clutch Gaara's vest in the resulting dizziness. "Were you not listening? We were fighting! I'm not so weak it should be considered murder if he fights back!"

Naruto had the grace to look ashamed, comically dangling in the air, before his eyes turned serious. "This is different and you know it." A few more seconds. "Fine, I won't kill him. Happy?"

Gaara lowered him back to the ground, and true to his word, Naruto didn't jump his teammate the second his feet touched the sand. He observed Gaara and Sakura silently. "So. What now?"

Sakura opened her mouth, but Gaara roughly interrupted her. "**Now **Sakura is going back to **recover**." And he engulfed them both in sand and disappeared, ignoring his sister's protests.

A mile or so away, Shikamaru had the vague feeling he'd just missed something.

--

Gaara had been scared. For the first time in years, he had been the victim of blind terror.

That night Sakura had dared to touch him, he had felt anxiety, coupled with some fear. This was different. So painfully, terrifyingly different. And it also revolved around Sakura.

To see her, shaking on the ground, eyes displaying such raw, animalistic terror...had bothered him. A lot. Enough for him to briefly lose control, and create a mini-explosion of sand. Because he couldn't see what was wrong with her. She wasn't bleeding. He couldn't help her if he didn't know how she was injured.

Then he had spotted Uchiha, running to her, and had changed his own intent from **reaching** her to **protecting** her.

By the time he had achieved this position, his brief episode of panic had ebbed into concern. Then rage. Red, throbbing anger. Because he had realized there wasn't anything physically wrong with her – her mind had been screwed with. And **who** was famous for instilling fear in the enemy with just a glance? Right.

And now, he wasn't sure what he felt. Warm, for one thing. But that was physical. A little antsy. **That** was because Sakura had fallen asleep in his arms, and he had no idea what to do with her.

The simple solution would be to drop her on her bed, and leave. Except, she seemed blatantly opposed to that option. When he tried, she fiercly gripped his shirt and whimpered. He wasn't sure which hindered him more.

So now he stood, with a sleeping girl in his arms. A sleeping girl whom was causing absolute havoc on his emotional balance. Temari would be home soon, ready to chew him out for ditching her. Oh, what to do.

"Gaara..." She pressed her face into his chest and sighed contentedly.

This girl was out to destroy him.

Carefully, he eased onto her bed, trying not to jostle her awake. He tried laying her down a second time. She refused to release him. Well...he could strip, but that seemed like an excessive amount of trouble.

Deciding to opt for a different tact, he leant back against her headboard, and slowly relaxed his arms until she was draped across his lap. Still clutching his shirt. Gods above...

Hmm. Kind of awkward, but that was her fault for being uncooperative.

Eventually, she would let go of him. Until then, he would wait with her while she slept.

--


	15. Recognition

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any of its characters.

--

Black. Dark, inky black. Liquid black. How was she breathing?

Oh. She _wasn't_ breathing. Her lungs were just beginning to burn from oxygen deprivation. Her body needed air, she needed to get out of this water and _why_ was it so dark?

She couldn't move_. Why couldn't she move_? Something was holding her down, but she couldn't see what it was. She couldn't see anything.

And then, light. Dim, but enough to see by. Chains? She was chained to something; the ground, she thought. Assuming there was a ground. She couldn't bend her head far enough to see. Should she scream? But that would waste precious air...

The light was spreading, brightening. Except, it wasn't really light anymore. It was more colorful, solid. Shape was added. And then it was Naruto. Salvation.

"Naruto!" Bubbles propelled from her mouth, proof that she had said something, but he apparently couldn't hear her. He wasn't even looking at her, he was looking somewhere else, at more light. Darker light. More shadow than light, really. Twisting. Shape. Sasuke. Good. Her teammates were here.

Her lungs ached. Could they not see her? Why were they just staring at each other?

Naruto was changing. His eyes were sharpening, fading to a dusty red. His canines lengthened, jutting over his lower lip as his nails sharpened. He bared his teeth, silently growling.

She felt her mind go numb. Kyuubi.

– _she couldn't breathe_–

Energy suddenly flashed and crackled in both their hands, and they were running. Towards each other. She opened her mouth and screamed at them to stop. What were they doing?

She was too insignificant to bother with. They were going to kill each other, because she was too weak to stop them this time. And she was going to die too, because they wouldn't save her. They were all going to die. It was all her fault and **she needed air **–

Sakura sat bolt upright, eyes snapping open at the same moment Naruto and Sasuke connected, and her dream self screamed.

She was shaking, almost violently. Strands of hair stuck wetly to her face, drenched in sweat. Her shallow pants filled the silence, so similar to that in her dream.

She dropped her face into her palms, almost crying but not quite, and tried to quiet her erratic breathing. Air, she had it, she was breathing. Naruto and Sasuke were fine, alive...

"It's normal. Nightmares are often associated with genjutsu."

Her shoulders lurched with surprise, but she didn't bother to lift her head. She'd already been semi-aware of his presence.

"Is that what he made you see?" His voice had an edge to it now.

She silently shook her head and raised her eyes to look at his silhouette, sitting cross-legged at the foot of her bed. "No. That was just – feelings. This was a dream." She laughed nervously. "A stupid, stupid dream."

"Then is that what you fear?" He refused to relent. "Your teammates killing each other?"

"How did you know that?"

"You were talking in your sleep."

Her heartbeat was slowly returning to normal. "Yes. They've almost, before. And, them leaving me behind, because I'm not as important as each other." She surprised herself with the bitterness of her tone.

He was silent, then –

"You are not weak."

She gave him a surprised glance. "I never said I was."

"You think it, often. Your eyes are too expressive."

She gave him a shaky smile. "If you reword that it can be a compliment."

His eyes narrowed. "No. Giving too much away is dangerous. It would be too easy to use that against you."

The smile dropped. "I thought you just said I wasn't weak."

"You aren't."

She sighed. "Why can't you ever give me a straight answer?"

"Straight answers are dangerous too." His voice had lost its steadiness. He sounded aggravated, as if something had been bothering him. "It would be too easy to twist them into a way to kill me." He gave a strange, unbalanced laugh. "At least, that's what I learned growing up."

There was a strange lurch in her chest. "I wouldn't kill you, you know."

"I have no reason to trust you."

That stung. More than it should have, she realized. She crossed her arms defensively over her chest, her sense of security already slipping away. She closed her eyes and leant into the headboard, unconsciously trying to put distance between them. She felt more than saw him hesitate, as if he knew the effect of his words.

"I'm sorry," she said lowly.

"You have no reason to apologize."

She opened her eyes, uncrossed her arms. "Yes, I do." She crawled closer on her hands and knees, and reached out to brush strands of shaggy hair away from his forehead. He allowed the contact, unmoving. His eyes were bright, hopeful and suspicious at the same time. They probed hers, searching for an ulterior motive, and she almost started crying. What had it felt like, to grow up that way? She'd thought she had it bad...She met his gaze defiantly. "I'm sorry for everything that's happened to you. You didn't deserve it."

She must have been insane, having no idea where she got the courage for this declaration. But, she meant it. He was afraid of people, and he needed help. She didn't like this dark, guarded part of him. She slowly cupped his cheek. She needed to show him he didn't need to protect himself from her.

_**What ever happened to not being sure about the relationship, huh? Aren't you going a little fast?**_

Blessed would be the day when her inner self decided to shut the hell up for twenty four hours. As it was she had to just inwardly scowl and shove her to the back of her mind.

His expression remained the same, unreadable, his eyes remaining on hers.

He brought his hand up to cover her own, and her breath hitched. Warm.

"I had an uncle," he said finally. She sighed with relief and settled beside him, interlocking their fingers.

"Was he like everyone else?"

"In the end." His grip on her hand tightened. "But he was the first person who treated me like I wasn't a monster."

She dropped her head onto his shoulder, silently prompting him to continue. He untangled their fingers and rested a hand on the back of her neck. "You reminded me of him, back in the Chuunin Exams."

"What happened to him?"

"I killed him."

She stiffened, instincts telling her to pull away, but forced herself to be still. She'd brought this upon herself by pushing him.

"He tried to assassinate me."

She let out a long breath. Oh.

After several moments, she opened her mouth. "Hey, Gaara?"

"Hm."

"I promise not to assassinate you."

"You couldn't if you tried."

"Yes I could!"

"I doubt it."

He grabbed her chin and cut off her angry retort with his lips. She quieted immediately, hands unconsciously moving to clasp behind his neck.

"Ah..." Err. What had she been about to say again?

She pulled away, face flushed. "I have to tell you something," she slurred, trying to get the blood back into her brain. "Ah, you might have noticed I have sharingan..."

"You're part Uchiha," he stated, throwing her off. "It was in the mission report.

She blinked, slowly. "...Oh." The fact that he had been completely aware of her heritage the entire time she'd been under his care and had never thought to mention it was a little staggering.

"So..." she said carefully. "You know that guy that's after Sasuke and me is still at large..."

The corners of his lips tilted downwards. "Yes."

"Well...I was thinking..." she nervously worried her top lip between her teeth. "He's after Sasuke, too...and...maybe we should stick together. We _are_ a team."

His reply was unhesitant. "No."

Her brows creased with displeasure. "Why not?"

"I'm not letting him touch you."

She wasn't sure who they were talking about anymore. "But it makes sense – "

He wrapped his arms around her, pulling her into his lap. "You're _mine_."

Her mouth dropped open. For such a possessive statement, he'd said it rather affectionately.

She turned her head as far as it would go to look at him. "Gaara," she said flatly. "He's my brother." _And brothers aren't romantically interested in their sisters._

_...I hope._

He appeared unmoved. Apparently this had been in his mission report, too. "If you're in the same place, it will be easier to kill you both."

"I don't want to live while Sasuke dies!"

She was being immature, she knew. She was a shinobi, this was they way things operated. The less casualties the better. But Gaara made it sound like _betrayal_.

His grip on her tightened, lips moving next to her ear. "You love him," he accused.

"No," she said calmly. "Not in the way you think."

Lo and behold, she'd said it. And it had been easy.

He was satisfied by her answer. His arms gentled, became caressing. They sat like that for a while, neither of them wanting to say anything. In the total silence and darkness of the room, it was easy to remember her dream. She shuddered and pressed closer to him, turning sideways to rest her cheek on his chest.

"Cold?"

"No...I'm just a little messed up is all." A pause. "Well, I'm cold, too."

They moved to the top of the bed, Sakura eagerly burrowing beneath the blankets. Gaara watched, looking amused, before joining her. He wrapped his arms around her and tucked her head under his chin. "The genjutsu he used. What was it?"

"Not really a jutsu," she mumbled. "A bloodline trait. It makes you feel...things."

Gaara's voice was low and rough. "Illusions?"

"No...more like, what you're afraid of." She tucked her chin closer to her chest, hunching her shoulders protectively over herself. "I couldn't actually see anything...just felt."

He was silent, obviously waiting for her to go on.

"For me it was weakness. I couldn't _see_ it, but I knew what had happened. My whole team was dead...the Kyuubi had been taken from Naruto, and Orochimaru stole Sasuke's body...I'm not sure what happened to Kakashi-sensei, but he was gone too. But I was still alive. Because I'd been too weak to help."

"You're not weak."

She smiled. "I've heard. But, what if something does happen? We're always in danger, that's guaranteed when you have one of the last Uchiha heirs, the Kyuubi vessel, the Hokage's apprentice, and the famous copy ninja all in one place...but it just seems so much closer than before. What if that guy really manages to kill Sasuke? And, Naruto's here too..."

"He hasn't shown himself in weeks."

"The Akatsuki didn't show itself for three years."

"Sakura."

"Mm?"

"Go to sleep."

He pulled her closer, and she found she could do nothing but oblige.

--

They couldn't see him.

He slipped through the gates, relishing in a moment of self-pride when the guards didn't notice. Months, of developing and perfecting this jutsu...and it was finally useful.

He slipped behind a nearby building, not quite secure enough to drop the genjutsu yet. But he grinned.

He was in.

He was a _God_.

--

When Sakura woke up, it was to Kankuro poking her in the side. She swatted his hand away and sat up, sleepily glancing around. "Where's Gaara?"

His eyebrows shot upward. "He slept with you?"

Hm. Shit.

By the time she'd gotten him to shut up, it was almost midday. She took note of the sunlight filtering through the roughly cut window. "How long was I asleep?"

Kankuro shrugged. "A long time. Gaara said not to wake you, but I figured you'd have liked to get up before noon."

"Thanks," she said distractedly. "Hey, Kankuro?"

"Yeah?"

"I need you to take me to that hotel where Sasuke-kun's staying."

"I hope you're not thinking about starting another fight. I heard about your escape act yesterday. Temari wasn't pleased."

"No. I promise." She added, seeing the look he gave her.

"All right." He left for the door, and paused. "Personally, I would have chopped the kid in half. But that's just me."

--

Sasuke felt like shit. It just seemed like his entire life was going to hell in a handbasket.

He hadn't meant to use his sharingan...it was instinct. Instinct that had been pounded into him from the day he could walk. And he couldn't even apologize, because Gaara had frisked her away before he'd taken two steps, and Kakashi had him under house arrest.

The man wouldn't leave him alone. At all. He was constantly watching him, and had thus far refused to let him leave the hotel. "Just this feeling I've got," he'd said blandly.

So, while Kakashi had his dirty little books to entertain him (And listening to him giggle was getting more and more disturbing by the hour), Sasuke had nothing but his memories of how he'd accidentally tortured his sister. Fan-fucking-tastic.

"Get the door," Kakashi said, turning a page. No one had knocked, but Sasuke knew better than to argue.

He flung the door open and came face to face with Sakura. She had one fist uncertainly raised, as if debating whether or not she should knock. Kankuro was leaning against the wall behind her, arms crossed.

"...hey, Sasuke-kun."

He blinked. "What are you doing here?"

She hesitated, looking at Kankuro, who shrugged. "Go ahead. I'll wait out here."

She nodded and stepped inside, eyes roaming over the small room. "Hey, Kaka-sensei."

He nodded in greeting, then stood. "I'll just leave, then."

Which was completely unfair. He'd give her privacy, but not him? Favoritism.

Once Kakashi had left the room, she gave him a severe frown. "Machoistic bastard."

What?

"What the _hell_ did you attack Gaara for?"

His expression hardened, immediately defensive. "Why do you care?"

"I care what happens to him, okay?" She glared at him. "How would you feel if I just beat the crap out of Naruto for no reason?"

She seemed to realize this was a stupid question, because she hurried on. "Stop going all male pride on the people I care about, all right? Do you want a repeat of what happened yesterday?"

Excuse him, hadn't he won that fight?

But he just cocked a brow. "Fine. I'll leave your lover alone."

And then, to his total chagrin, she didn't deny it. "Good."

Fuck, they weren't really lovers, were they?

"_Are you having sex with him?_"

Dear God. Had he really just asked that?

Blood rushed to her face and she vehemently replied. "No!"

He watched her, and she met his gaze. "Naruto will kick his ass if he hurts you."

Which was code for "We'll both fuck him with a rusty spoon if he tries anything."

She smiled. "I'm aware. Is Kaka-sensei keeping you locked up here?"

"He might as well be." Sasuke relaxed, glad her animosity was gone.

"I see. W – "

But at that moment Kakashi kicked the door open, rushing in. "Get down."

Sakura dropped without question, having learned in the past it was best to just obey orders and shut the hell up. Sasuke followed, already reaching for a kunai.

Kakashi went lurching sideways, as if something had hit him. He swiped at air with a kunai, and was bodily thrown across the room by some invisible force. Sakura leapt to her feet at the same moment Kankuro came running in, but Kakashi stopped her. "Stay back. Kankuro, take them. Keep them safe."

Kankuro sprinted to the window. "Come on." As reluctant as Sasuke was to run away, he spared one last glance to his mentor before following his sister out the window and into the air.

They all hit the ground running, veering to the left. Kankuro cracked off three shadow clones. "ANBU headquarters are this way. Guess your mystery man finally decided to show up."

"What about Kakashi?" Sakura sped up to match his pace. "Will he be all right?"

"Kakashi can take care of himself," Sasuke grunted, adrenaline pumping.

"Yeah, I'd worry about myself if I were you."

They turned down an alleyway, and Kankuro began to pant. "Shit. I really need to work on my cardio."

It was such an insane comment that Sakura had to laugh. "I can't believe you..._Sasuke, your left_."

He dropped to the ground and rolled, watching as something connected with the ground he had been running on second before. Sakura was already bringing her hands together in a seal. "Kai!" When nothing happened, she repeated the process. "_Kai_!"

"Stop that," Sasuke snapped. "You're wasting chakra."

"Well excuse me," she snapped back, bringing her arm up to block an invisible blow. "At least I'm trying."

He irritably performed a series of seals. "Move."

She jumped obediently into the air, and he let loose a blast of flames. They dissipated almost immediately, except for one, small flicker. _There_. He darted forward, bringing his kunai down in one, clean arc. He felt it connect with something, and a thin line of dribbling red appeared.

A rattling sound alerted him that Kankuro was removing Karasu from his back. "Excellent."

Sakura came shooting back to the ground with a sharp cry, ploughing her fist into the ground by the bright splash of red. It darted away, then was forced to dodge three shuriken Sasuke sent its way. It was intercepted by Karasu, and managed to escape. Sakura was up again, already powering up for a second attack. Easy.

Something slammed into the back of his head, and his vision blackened. Sakura and Kankuro went on, not noticing. _They had been fighting a clone_.

"Sasuke!" Sakura shouted his name as she saw him fall to the ground, world falling away. Fuck, they were so _stupid_.

He thought he heard a second thump before he blacked out.


	16. Prisoner

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any of its characters.

--

What the hell was _this_?

Feeling came before sight. Her head was pounding, blocking out any sluggish thoughts she might have entertained, had she the ability to think. _Ummm?_ She dimly registered something holding her wrists, then her world faded.

The second time she came to was because someone had woken her up. _Annoyingly. _"Shut up," she mumbled, gritting her teeth because her head hurt _so_ much and she really would prefer to just go on sleeping.

Someone had other plans. "Hey. Get up. Now. That's an order."

She blinked slowly, some fraction of her situation registering. "'m not your subordinate."

Something kicked her. She cried out piteously, more in protest than actual pain, and twisted her body sideways to retaliate. She tried to gather chakra into her heel, and stars exploded before her eyes.

She was definitely awake.

"My chakra's gone!" She rasped in surprise.

"Mine's been gone for hours," came the melancholy reply. Sakura moaned and lowered her head. The steady throbs had been replaced with sharp, intense pangs. She waited until the pain had faded before raising her head to stare at her companion. Sasuke stared impassively back.

"Where...are we?" She questioned, and he shook his head. "How would I know?"

Well damn. If this didn't just suck more than usual. Here she was, all chakra-less and useless once again, crammed into some tiny room without so much as a door, and she had shackles on her wrists. She was chained to a fucking couch!

Ummm.

"Are we in someone's _living room_?"

Sasuke blew out some air through pursed lips, visibly unimpressed with her incredulousness. Been there, done that. "Yes."

The room was crammed with furniture – coffee tables, love seats, lamps. It might have belonged to an old cat lady, if the walls didn't appear to be made of dusty stone. No door in sight. _What about air?_

Right. Okay. Living rooms were okay. She could deal with living rooms. Living rooms were familiar territory. They weren't worth panicking over. If she panicked, she would shorten their air supply. Not that she would have to worry about that...she had just decided they had plenty of air.

Sasuke looked around the room with detached calculation. "I think this place is airtight."

"Fuck!" She exploded. "Fuck, Sasuke, we're going to die!"

"We are not going to die," he said, giving her the same looked he had when they were twelve and she had just done something stupid.

She closed her eyes and breathed in deeply. She was okay. They were okay. This situation was okay. She'd been in worse. She tilted her head back and squinted at the ceiling.

"Sasuke," she said suddenly. "There's a door up there."

"I know." Of course. "If I could activate my sharingan..."

He let his sentence trail off. She studied the almost invisible square in the ceiling. It about four by four feet. No handle. It opened from the other side. Obviously.

"...do you think Kakashi and Kankuro are all right?"

"Probably not."

Had they been different people, he would have lied for her.

She swallowed against the burning in her throat. She would have to be stupid and naive to believe their attacker had a shred of mercy in him.

But she had always been stupid and naive, anyway.

And stupidity usually went hand in hand with being emotional.

Fuck the rules. She was already everything the rules told her not to be.

"Hey. HEY." She strained all the muscles in her throat. "Where the hell are you!"

"Sakura, what the hell."

She threw back her head and screamed as loud as she could.

"Sakura!"

"Keep screaming. I'll claw your filthy little eyes out."

--

She was screaming. What the hell was wrong with her?

And the ceiling was moving. Huh.

"Sakura!"

She went on, heedless to the urgency in her voice. The trap door fell open and a high, lilting voice floated down into the cramped space.

"Keep screaming," it said silkily, sounding almost female. The fine dusting of hair on the back of Sasuke's neck raised and he automatically shifted into a crouch. His drained muscles screamed in protest, a thousand needles rippling along the entire length of his body. "I'll rip your filthy little eyes out."

That sounded familiar.

Sakura was shaken up, but not stupid. Her mouth had clamped shut the moment she heard something, and her fists were held up in front of her in a classic defensive position. Her eyes narrowed and focused in sync with his own.

"Come down," Sasuke said flatly.

He had about half a second's warning, then there was a flash of color and his head snapped back, followed by a burst of blood in his mouth. "Sasuke!" He blinked slowly, face blank, then turned his head to stare at the figure that had suddenly materialized. "Overkill," he said calmly to the twisted face so close to his.

"Don't tell me what the fuck to do," the other hissed.

Sakura was rigid beside him, trying to figure out what had just happened. "Where are they?" She asked immediately, eyes flashing to Sasuke's face.

He switched his attention from Sasuke to her. "Who?" He said, sounding genuinely curious.

Her face darkened. "My friends."

"Oh. Them."

"Yes, _them_," she snarled. Sasuke pushed his weight against her shoulder warningly. "Where the hell are they?"

"That really depends on what you believe in. Where do you think they are?"

"Why did you target us?" Sasuke interrupted. Sakura was seconds away from snapping, and if she snapped, they died. Self-preservation was a basic skill, and he knew that the best course of action would be to focus on not setting this guy off. And setting him off was apparently quite easy.

The man smiled and tilted his head, immediately serene. "What will you give me if I tell you? Not the girl, she belongs to the Kazekage, and I don't want to get him involved, no...not your eyes, I don't really want them, disgusting things..."

Sasuke briefly wondered, as he struggled to get a hold on the hot flash of anger that had suddenly reared up, why this guy thought viewing Sakura as a sexual object would piss Gaara off, whereas kidnaping and murdering her was A-OK. Sakura wisely kept silent, though he knew she was bristling. Or disturbed.

"Anything you want to know," she said in a low voice, apparently tired of being kept out of the conversation.

"Is anyone else in your clan alive?"

"No," Sasuke said. "I killed the only survivor a few months ago."

"I don't really believe you," the man smiled tightly. "But I'll find out anyway, just wait.

--

When Kankuro opened his eyes, they burned. _Ouch_. A thin phlegm clouded his vision, and he blinked hard. This worked well until he sneezed, hard, and his brain exploded.

Well.

"Kankuro!" Something gripped his arm. Wait, he could feel his arm? Oh good. He wasn't poisoned.

He slowly began the agonizing task of rolling his eyes. Temari was staring at him. He raised an eyebrow. "Um...hey."

"Moron," she snorted. Yup. Good old Temari. No 'Hey, you okay?' or 'I was so worried!' "Stay here, I'm going to get a medic."

By the time she had returned he was sitting up in his sterile white cot, experimentally flexing every joint in his body. So far everything worked. He glanced up, half-expecting someone to scold him.

"They say you're free to go," she said, voice edgy. She was watching him a little more closely than usual. "Not like they could have kept you here long anyway, but..."

He swung his legs over the side of the cot, grimacing when his head throbbed at the sudden movement. The hospital staff had been considerate enough to let him keep his clothes. Being the Kazekage's brother had its perks. "So where's Gaara?"

Temari sighed. "He's gone out with a search squad."

Kankuro frowned and said, "For what?" at the same time he remembered. He froze.

"For Sakura," Temari said, taken aback.

"Oh," he breathed. "Oh shit, Temari."

"Yeah, I kinda feel like that too."

He stared at his gloved hands, then his sister. "What about that white-haired guy? Her teacher?"

"He found you a little way away from the ANBU headquarters. He left with Gaara. So did Uzumaki and Shikamaru."

Kankuro closed his eyes wearily. "Just like old times, huh?"

--

"What are you doing?" Already she sounded resigned, like she was only asking because that's what people did, usually.

"I'm setting out," he answered briskly, and shoved some protein bars into a drawstring bag. "Medic says I'm fine. I think I'm fine." He stopped packing and looked at her. "...you look fine." _You coming?_

She sighed irritably, standing in his doorway with her hands on her hips. "I am."

He returned to packing. "You got a bag?"

She snorted. "I'll share with you."

Share a bag. Like they used to when they were little and formed a united front against their terrifying baby brother. They had been a duo, as opposed to the trio they were now. _And maybe a quartet soon, the way things are going._

Assuming their fourth member wasn't dead.

He shied away from the possibility, pushing it to the back of his mind where it couldn't burden him and the mission. The rescue mission, because she was _alive_. Obviously.

He pulled the drawstrings and slung the pack over his back. "Are we ready to go or what?"

--

She later learned her head hurt because of the drugs they were injected with every few hours, which completely nullified their chakra. Extremely crude, maybe, but nonetheless effective, especially considering the man's limited resources. She could struggle all she wanted, but no matter how hard she tried, she could never feel so much as a spark of chakra. It was like she just didn't have any...like she was dead.

The chains connecting her and Sasuke to the moldy beige couch were about four feet long – they could barely touch each other, if they wanted to.

Her stomach had just started to burn with hunger when _he_ dropped into the room, landing crouched on a small coffee table.

"I forgot," he said, blinking at them. "I promised to give you an answer, didn't I?"

Sakura decided it would be smarter to just not say anything. Let him come to his own conclusions.

"You asked why I'm going to kill you." He looked at them expectantly, and was visibly disappointed when they just stared stonily back. "Well," he continued. "I used to have a wife."

_And she realized what a maniac you were? Or did you kill her before she could? _Sakura closed her eyes wearily. The poor woman.

"She was never pretty, my darling, but _so_ smart. And strong." He stopped and inhaled deeply though his nose. She suppressed a shudder. "But she was also _stupid_, because she fucked that bastard Uchiha, Fugaku."

Her eyes flew open. _What?_

He smiled appreciatively at her. "Yes, that's what I thought, too. But she did, and then she ran away when he wouldn't divorce his wife. I imagine he only slept with her for her clan secrets; she specialized in Suiton."

She turned numbly to look at Sasuke. He was staring frozenly ahead, expression blank. Oh _God_.

He went on calmly as though nothing had changed. "I had some time figuring it out. Ichi left me a note saying she had left, but she apparently didn't think I cared why. I followed her the night she left. She made the mistake of saying goodbye to Fugaku."

"And you killed her?"

She hadn't meant to say anything, but the raw shock of the past few seconds had furrowed beneath her common sense. His eyes focused on her and hardened.

"No," he spat. "I alerted the hunter-nins and let them do it."

"You..." Sick fuck? Twisted bastard? God, why did she even care? _Gaara._..No, none of that. Just shut up. Don't think. Don't feel. Just survive until someone came and freed them, and she could run away from the apparent hell that was her life.

"But then the next night the entire Uchiha clan was murdered." He rolled his eyes over to Sasuke. "By your brother, no less! I left the village for a while. Imagine my delight when I finally discovered that not only had two sons survived, but a bastard daughter as well."

_Bastard? Is that what I am? _Everything was detached, fuzzy. Like she knew what was going on but only half-cared.

"I'm surprised the sharingan even showed up in this one." He inclined his head towards her. "I never would have known if they hadn't." Big smile. "Lucky me."

--

_How long had he been watching us? _Why didn't anyone notice? And why did it even matter? They were probably going to die. Unless he wanted t keep them prisoner forever.

"Sasuke?" She couldn't believe she was asking this. "Didn't you ever _notice_?"

"That my father screwed around with other women? No, I never noticed," he said flatly. He had been uncharacteristically fidgety since their kidnapper left.

"But how could you not?"

"I was seven."

"So?"

"Why do you even care?" He snarled, going from indifferent to furious in a second.

"He was my father too!"

"_And we're going to die because he was a complete slut_!" He hurled the words at her, screaming. She recoiled automatically. It was the most emotion he had shown in months.

His heavy breathing filled up the silence.

"...it's unhealthy to keep that stuff inside you. What else have you got in there?"

He stared at her, then deflated, closing his eyes. "You are _so_ annoying."

"I'm your sister," she reminded him.

"Half-sister."

"Sister, regardless."

"I think Kakashi is alive," he said suddenly.

She blinked rapidly. "Really?"

He gave her a sour look. "I _think_. He was fighting a clone. He's not _that_ useless."

So there was hope. "Where do you think we are?"

"He couldn't have dragged two unconscious bodies far."

And he was probably listening to them right now. How disturbing...

There could be people looking for them. Right. Now. Shinobi could come dropping from that little hopeless square in the ceiling at any second.

She hoped Gaara didn't come with them. He was far too valuable to his village to accompany a rescue mission. But then, part of her (the part she denied existed) was praying he came...craving to see him again.

She also hoped they came for her before her next shot. Her thigh was starting to ache...

Her wrists were rubbed raw, too. She pulled carefully at one chain. With chakra, she could easily rip it in half. Maybe their kidnapper would slip up and drug them a few minutes too late. That would be all she needed.

And if Sasuke could gather enough chakra to activate his sharingan...

She squinted at the trap door. It had just become a possibility.

--


	17. New Direction

She had a plan. Kindabutnotreally.

It was rough, yes, and was only really there because she couldn't think of anything better, but dammit, it was better than nothing.

"Sasuke," she said quietly. "Remember that mission where we delivered all those birds to that little village? And Naruto tripped and all his birds flew away?"

He looked at her, all quiet eyes and mild curiosity. "Yeah."

"That was fun. We should do it again soon."

He kept looking at her even after she turned away, and she felt satisfied. He knew her well enough to differentiate when she was just feeling sentimental and when she was really trying to tell him something. If she had been taken prisoner with Naruto she would have been utterly doomed to rot in this hell, chained to a _sofa_, which, face it, was one of the worst possible ways anyone could ever die. Luckily she was with the more mature of her two teammates...and he got it.

The thing about Uchihas was that they were just _sneaky_ – naturally or otherwise. Maybe this gene had skipped over her when it was her turn, since she got her kicks shattering mountainsides, but Sasuke certainly hadn't missed out. So when their psychotic widow of a kidnapper came to inject them with their hourly dose of chakra-no-more, he was caught entirely unawares when Sasuke's foot snaked out and caught his ankle.

He stumbled a little, and his fingers fumbled the two vials. They slipped from his hand and smashed on the floor, sending tiny bits of glass everywhere. He righted himself and stared at the little puddle on the ground, apparently stunned.

"I'm so sorry," Sasuke said blandly. "That was entirely unintentional."

He blinked a couple of times, slowly, and Sakura tensely wondered if he was going to have an outburst. But then he just smiled, a little self-mockingly, and murmured, "It happens." Then he jumped to catch the edge of the trapdoor and pulled himself out. Sakura waited, heart pounding in her ears, wondering how much chakra she could muster in the one or two minutes it took him to come back. _Not a lot_. Enough? _Probably not_. Oh, shut up.

He wasn't gone long, _less_ than a minute if you asked her, and there was no way he was going to fall for the gosh-what-an-accident trick again. Sakura let him poison her like the good little girl she was, focusing inward. This was going to _hurt like a bitch _and she knew it, but that was okay. She was more preoccupied with just making it work...if it was even possible. Experimenting with anything regarding poison was the biggest no-no in the book, but she frankly wanted to live. She and Sasuke needed to get out of here.

She waited until he left, then placed her palm flat on her thigh, eyes closed. To her desperate relief she felt some tiny shred of energy gather. It was already dissolving, whatever they were being injected with was extremely potent, but she clutched it and held it in place. Then she pushed it in.

It was strange. She had never been this low on chakra before, and she wasn't used to the feeling that it could float away at any second. The poison was slippery and hard to catch and spreading fast, but she caught it, forcing her minuscule chakra to stretch to its fullest extent and encase it, dragging it all to one spot. Then she pulled out.

It took a lot of effort not to scream, or at least swear. It had looked painful when she was doing it to Kankuro, but this was a hundred times worse. There was no medium, water or otherwise, to soften the transfer. She was _forcing it through her skin _and it was unnatural and wrong wrong wrong, but she would make herself do it because they needed to get out. She could feel Sasuke watching her and knew he didn't dare say anything, and almost felt triumphant for a second. _Who's saving who now? _Then it was out and done and she was holding a suspended, watery ball of drugs and blood in her hand.

She made herself not drop it, even though the small task left her feeling exhausted. She dumped it under a couch cushion instead. Sasuke shifted closer to her, his heavy chains dragging loudly across the floor.

"You okay?"

She smiled and reached out, taking his hand in hers.

"Yeah."

--

Sakura had gone through this routine six times (after each injection) and had just finished her seventh when she cleared her throat and looked at him. He glanced at her, then where she was pointing. Her thigh was an inflamed red, somewhat bloody and infected looking. His eyebrows creased with displeasure, then he realized there was no way their kidnapper would miss that.

They needed to move.

She motioned him closer and he did the best he could. A few second later he understood why she had been contorting her face; it fucking hurt. But it was over almost as soon as it had begun, and he would rather have that shit out of his body anyway. She let the drugs drop, and they splashed all over the floor.

Sakura made quick work of their chains, taking them in her hands and simply twisting them in two with a quick flick of her wrists, but to Sasuke it looked like it had taken more effort than she was letting on. Her chakra definitely wasn't up to par, then. It would take hours for him to regenerate enough of his own to be useful. This was going to be tough.

But then, they were Team 7. Story of their damn lives.

"I can't sense him," she murmured, narrowing her eyes at the ceiling. "But I mean, we never could before, so..."

They ended up with her balancing precariously on her shoulders. Her boots hurt like hell, but he wasn't about to say anything. She tentatively pushed the door open and then hauled herself up, then reached down to help him. If it had been any other time he would have declined, but he was feeling shaky and unstable from lack of food and chakra. They had been stuck down here for at least a day, maybe more. Dehydration was more likely than not to set in soon.

He silently replaced the door and they stood. They were in a dimly-lit hallway of what looked like stone. If he had to guess he would say they were underground.

They hesitated, because they could go either right or left and both ways seemed an ominously stupid choice. He eventually jerked his head left, and she followed his lead. If they were going to do this blind they might as well be original.

It was slow going. Neither of them was at their peak performance, and it took more effort than it should have to be quiet. Sakura was limping, and that bothered him more than anything. It was fine now, but if they ran into a situation where they needed to _run_...

She slowed down and then stopped, just barely panting. "Sasuke," she whispered. "Maybe I should jut knock out a wall. It might lead out."

He shook his head. "Maybe it'll lead to his bedroom."

She bit her lip and he wondered if she was going to argue with him. Or just knock down the wall anyway.

"It's just...my leg's really messed up. I pulled the poison through too many times, and I...I think some of the muscle is...falling apart."

He stared at her. Then he swallowed.

"...all right. Which wall do you think..."

But he cut himself off and grabbed her, jerking her behind him as two senbon whistled past the space her head had been. She stumbled a little and sucked in a pained gasp. Their kidnapper stared at them flatly.

"Did I say you could fucking leave...?"

Then the ceiling exploded.

--

As many times as Sakura had witnessed things exploding, it was still a disorienting experience. She and Sasuke backtracked _fast_, leaping away so they wouldn't be crushed under the debris. Her leg buckled under her weight when she landed, but Sasuke shot out an arm to steady her, not taking his eye off the unfolding pandemonium.

Nin were pouring through the gaping hole that used to be solid stone, _waves_ of them. Most of them were nimbly leaping around the pile of rock, assumedly to whoever was on the other side. A couple broke off from the general mass, approaching them. Sasuke tensed.

"Uchiha Sasuke? Haruno?"

Sakura opened her mouth to reply, either that yes she was or to stay the hell away from her, but then she recognized Kakashi straightening himself and brushing dust off his vest. Shikamaru and Naruto followed after him. They did a quick scan of the situation and then spotted her and Sasuke, and started towards them. Unconsciously her eyes trailed behind them, looking for someone else.

Gaara was there too.

He was dressed all in black and for once didn't have his arms crossed, instead holding them awkwardly at his sides like he wasn't quite sure what to do with them. It made him look more vulnerable and yet more dangerous all at the same time. His hair seemed redder, somehow, maybe it was all the black. She locked eyes with him and started running without realizing it, completely bypassing the other three men.

They crashed together awkwardly. She collapsed against him, actually, because her leg finally gave out, but that didn't really matter. His wiry arms wound around her to keep her from falling, then he was crushing her to him, lifting her off her feet. She wrapped her arms around his neck and pressed her face into his shoulder, mouth contorting into weird shapes that she didn't really know existed. Medics were queuing around her, asking if she was okay, and she could hear her kidnapper screaming hideously in the background, but you know, that was all just going to have to fucking wait because this was more important.

"Thought you were dead," he mumbled at her, arms tightening.

She laughed and it caught in her throat. "So did I."

She pulled back because she wanted to look at him. His eyes, a shade lighter than hers, studied her face intently, then he pressed his mouth hard against hers. Her fingers tangled in his hair and she kissed him back, shutting her eyes to hide from all the nastiness that she was dimly aware was going on.

"Oh come on, we came to rescue you too."

She broke away and laughed, and Gaara set her on the ground, though he didn't let go of her. She turned awkwardly in his embrace to hug Naruto, and Sasuke too since the blonde had dragged him over. Kakashi stood passively by, not physically joining in but somehow part of it anyway. Shikamaru had his hands shoved in his pockets, looking like he might want to get closer to her but not necessarily Gaara.

"Geeze, Sakura," he said instead. "What did you do to your leg?"

Which led to Naruto freaking out. "Holy _shit_, get a medic!"

And that led to every medic in the room who wasn't already right beside her rushing forward, all pressing to heal her.

Gaara stayed right by her side the entire time.

Which, honestly, was all she had ever really asked for.

--

In retrospect, they definitely should have thought this out better. Neither of them were trackers, never had been, never would be. But Gaara had practically taken every tracker in the village with him. So what had he left his brother and sister with? Nothing. Granted, he probably didn't expect his brother and sister to follow him, but whatever...

Kankuro sighed and rubbed at his eyes with his shirt. His makeup was melting into them, and it burned like hell. Temari sighed too. Neither of them would admit they weren't entirely sure where the hell they were or where they were going, but...

Well. It was pretty obvious.

"Kankuro," she said finally. "We're lost."

"We know we're near Suna."

She gave him a don't-even-fucking-start look. "We're_ lost_."

"Fine." He threw his arms up. "We're lost!"

"_Yo! _Kankuro!"

He blinked and swivelled his head around. If he saw correctly, that was...Naruto, running towards them, wasn't it?

The boy skidded to a halt in front of them, panting. "What the hell are you guys doing out here?"

"...backup?"

He laughed, and then turned around and started yelling again. "_Guys! _Guess who I found!" He turned back to Kankuro and Temari. "You'll never guess where that guy had them...he'd built like, an entire house underground..."

"I...wait." Temari stuttered. "You found her?"

"Yeah, we found them. Look, they're over there...damn slow..."

And then in the distance, and getting bigger by the second, marched Gaara's miniature army. Gaara was at the front, partially supporting Sakura, and Shikamaru was on her other side. Temari started walking to meet them halfway. Sasuke and Kakashi strode a little ways behind them, more hard to discern because they mixed with the various other nin Gaara had brought along.

Naruto's eyes sparkled. "You really missed out. It was_ awesome_."

--

She was leaving.

It was only for a few days, actually, until she could get permission to leave and come live with him, the way things should have been, but she was leaving all the same, and it grated on him. After that last incident he was hesitant to let her out of his sight for five minutes to use the shower...let alone days on end where he couldn't reach her.

She was standing in front of him while her friends stood a little ways behind her, waiting for her to say goodbye. Sakura was avoiding his eyes, tucking invisible strands of hair behind her ear and biting her lip. He was making it a little hard on her by staring at her so intensely, he'd admit, but, well, she was _leaving_. She finally looked at him, blushing a little and clearing her throat.

"It's just a few days...I'll come back as soon as possible."

Gaara didn't give her a break, just frowned a little more deeply. She sighed.

"...are you mad at me?"

"No," he said finally. He considered telling her he just didn't want her to go but pushed that thought aside. Too sentimental.

She seemed to figure it out on her own, though, and her expression cleared. He was grateful. "Good." Then she leaned on her tip-toes to peck him on the cheek and tried to hug him. He just stood there for a few seconds (okay, maybe he was kind of mad at her), but then he gave in and held her to him, resting his chin on her head. Naruto was snickering, the little _bastard_, and Sasuke didn't look particularly happy. She sighed, and he felt her smile.

"Will you wait for me?"

He stared unhappily at the group of people shamelessly watching them, not even pretending to be interested in something else.

"You know I will."

--


End file.
